Dig Deeper...

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn;

    he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

5 

The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water,

    but a man of understanding will draw it out.

6 

Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love,

    but a faithful man who can find?

7 

The righteous who walks in his integrity—

    blessed are his children after him!

8 

A king who sits on the throne of judgment

    winnows all evil with his eyes.

9 

Who can say, “I have made my heart pure;

    I am clean from my sin”?

(Proverbs 20:4-9)

Every spring it has been the same thing - waiting for the the ground to dry out to till the land.  Being a novice gardener, I decided last fall to till the ground in the fall after the harvest to get a head start. Not a novel idea, as we see in the first verse above.  It is wise to not procrastinate - to plan and to work ahead - to dig deeper now, rather than be disappointed later. The first 19 chapters of Proverbs has been increasingly pointed in telling us to look within. Now he is telling us to dig deeper - deep within our hearts, to turn over the ground, go into the deep end of our hearts.  We say we love, but what about our actions? We say we do the right thing, but what if every thought, word and action were to be examined by the King who judges all things? We say we are clean, but the truth is we all have areas of our lives - along the baseboards, in the closet, under the bed, that still need cleaning. If you are going through life, proudly thinking that all is well, nothing needs to change, and everyone else is the problem, it's time to dig deeper.