Staff Reflection: Diggin' a Ditch

This week, I had the opportunity to dig a trench to bury a gas line for a couple of days during chores. I was accompanied by a few lucky individuals, and it was an enjoyable 10:10 minutes both times. It was the first thing I did that day and I was sweating after just 5 minutes of taking a pickax to the ground. It was hard work for sure. But God was in it, and here's a pair of reasons why.
While I was operating the pickax, I thought of all the people who have done similar work. I thought first about prisoners working on chain gangs. They were put to work to help repay their debt to society, and the image that comes to mind is of the movie "Cool Hand Luke," where Paul Newman and his cohorts are digging a ditch on the side of some road in the blazing summer heat. I only used the pickax for about 20 minutes in the cool morning, but afterward I was drenched in sweat and had gained a new respect for prisoners and laborers who worked in such a way for hours on end. I felt in solidarity with a group of people, even if for only a short period of time.
The other thing that came to mind while digging the trench occurred when we went to put the dirt back into the trench after we had placed the gas line in the bottom of it. The earth didn't settle back into the ground as well as it had originally, and all of the pounding with our feet couldn't create as hard a surface that we started out with. It was obvious that the dirt would settle more with time and precipitation, and the feeling that we disturbed something couldn't get out of my mind. I thought about mountaintop removal and the damage it brings to the mountain itself and the surrounding environment. Mountaintop removers are supposed to return the mountain to an area just as good if not better after the removal of coal. However, it is impossible to put back all the rocks, trees, wildlife and water formations that are uprooted and destroyed after such an aggressive destruction of the environment. What we were doing wasn't nearly at the same scale as mountaintop removal, but it made me realize that God's creation, a creation that is ever evolving and changing without our help, is a gift that is irreplaceable and precious. Nature is imperfect, but it is perfect in its imperfection. I gained a greater respect for what God has given us through this experience. I can now see beauty in dirt, why it's something worth preserving, and how God reveals profound truths to us through simple acts.