Mowing Grass

I had a neighbor boy who was one year older than me.  We rode the school bus together and I played softball with him in the summer.  That is, if I got all of my chores done.  You see, when my dad left for work in the morning, he also left a list of things that I had to do before he got home in the afternoon.  But it seemed like Buzz always had free time.  One day, when I was over at his house, his grass looked exceptionally scraggly, so I asked him, “Buzz, doesn’t your dad get mad when you don’t mow the grass more often?”  Buzz said, “Oh, I’ve got it figured out.  I am going to Camp Philmont in New Mexico this August.  I’ll be gone for three weeks, so I told my dad that I am training the grass for when I am gone.”  From that day forward, I had much more admiration for Buzz.  He might have been lazy, but he was so clever.  Solomon said in Proverbs 26:16, “The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason.”  I don’t think that Buzz’s dad was that dumb.  He probably laughed at Buzz under his breath and went along with the deception.  But my dad, well, he wasn’t that dumb, and he wasn’t that lenient.  I wasn’t going to camp, so I mowed our grass each week.