GRACE & TRUTH

AmAndA HoggArd

Setting Up the Pins

My kids have been obsessed with the sunrise as we drive to school these beautiful fall days. They’re yelling out, “Look! Pink! Mommy, blue and purple!”

Graham, our youngest’s, version of ‘orange’ is the best, “Mommy! Sky is ornesh!” I love it.

We’re out the door with our kids by 7:15 a.m., six days a week. And, when I get tired of the drill, and it starts feeling like groundhog day, I’m reminded of one of the reasons I love Bertie County and its people so much.

We embrace the things that really make life meaningful here. Hard work, time with family, the mission of God, all are woven through our lives, held together by gratitude and steadiness. I have admired that about Bertie and Askewville.

And it has challenged me. Farming in our veins, there is an agricultural attitude in Eastern North Carolina. It’s a willingness to wait for the good things. It’s an appreciation for the slow and steady work of each day, bringing a pleasure in the work itself as well as the end result.

I sometimes spend my days waiting for the next exciting day to arrive, like I’m in a continuous countdown, looking forward to another “wow” moment. Don’t you know that sort of perspective fastforwards your days? It covers our ‘regular’ days with a lackluster haze of ingratitude and makes us force them past.

But, truly, exciting days are few and far between. The wedding day, the birth of a baby or grandbaby, graduations, the moment you’re finally cancer free. Absolutely momentous. And rare.

Most of life, like Joyce Meyer says, is just, “Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday…and if you can’t get happy in that, you’re going to be pretty miserable.”

So, I’ve taken a queue from many of you on how to live contentedly, seeing miraculous in the mundane and finding purpose in the plowing and plodding of the everyday. As the Psalmist says and we sang as children, “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it!” 118:24

You’ve challenged me to see my life differently and to stop waiting. To enjoy it and give it meaning in the very moment. Thank you, for that rich gift. You’ve shown me the beauty in things that take a little extra time, need to cook a little longer or require just a bit more sunlight. You’ve slowed me down and helped me take my eyes off the pavement to see the rich soil instead.

For those of you reading this, and you’ve got school-aged children, the humdrum comes especially fast and furious. You barely get to work and finish your day before it’s practice-homework-dinner-clean uppack the lunches-pack the backpacks-do the bedtime deal-and then you blink and you’re resetting it all again. Be of good cheer, what you’re doing is full of miracles and beauty. It is absolutely profound work.

One of my very favorite songs is called “Setting Up the Pins.”

Sara Groves says,

“My grandmother had a working song, hummed it low all day long, sing for the beauty that’s to be found, in setting up the pins for knocking em down.

Cook a dinner, clean the kitchen, hit the light, brush your teeth, read a book, say a prayer good-night

Everyone everywhere some way somehow are setting up the pins for knocking ‘em down it can feel simple but it’s really profound…”

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Today, as you set up your pins for knocking ‘em down, remember your “why.” Remember how absolutely miraculous it is that you’re here, that you have children, or meaningful work to do.

And thank you, friends, who have shown me a beautiful, new way of seeing life.

Amanda Hoggard is Connections Pastor at Askewville Assembly of God and a resident of Edenton. She can be reached via email at amandajhoggard@gmail.com.