It’s been said that faith can move mountains. Faith can move mountains, but it helps if you have a shovel.

 I moved a mountain today, a mountain of crap, horse crap to be exact. Perhaps I should be more delicate in my choice of words: manure. But sometimes the mountains in our life can feel more like a mountain of crap.

My aunt has two horses and generously let us take a trailer full of . . .manure. Facing the trailer was like facing a mountain. The only way it was going to make it into the compost bins and the garden was one shovel full at a time. I loaded the wheelbarrow, one shovel full at a time, over and over. I am glad for the free compost material and even glad for the effort required to use it. Toward the end, however, as fatigue and soreness settled into my body under the heat of the sun, I was ready to be done. At that point, it went from being manure to crap!

I moved close to 1000 pounds of horse crap, all by myself. It was a mountain I took down one shovel full at a time and spread it out so it could be useful. 

How many times in our lives do we face a mountain of crap and can’t seem to muster the will to face it? We know we need to, but it’s just too much to do all at once. If only we had enough faith to make it move! This is when the shovel approach is more helpful and realistic I think. We need just enough faith to move one shovel full, or trowel full. Sometimes, in fact often, I believe that is enough.

Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (a popular phrase in visioning and planning in business and church) may seek to make transformational change, but is the step-by-step effort that gets the transformation work done.  Next time you are facing a mountain that needs moving, remember that it’s okay to go after it one shovel full at a time.