Sometimes there are spots in life that just seem brown....ugly....they need work.
All around them green grass is growing, the sun is shining, ladeedadeeda.
But all we can see is the problem, the brown ugliness. All we can see is what isn't good, and this makes us want to change.
Unfortunately, as humans we're apt to think "Ok, I got this. I can change myself, be better, fix all my problems." But fixing ourselves without Jesus is like trying to make brown grass green without water.
Frankly, it just--doesn't--work.
Today, my dad and I were filling in a ditch lined with sprinklers. You got it: grass is dying on a slope of our field, so my dad dug a ditch and put in a whole line of new sprinklers. Every once in a while, I'd stand back from the ditch so he could try turning on the sprinklers and see if they work correctly. (They're really neat, they spiral around instead of shooting straight and rotating.)
Seeing all that water spray made me thirsty, but I knew we weren't done yet. We had to fill in the rest of the trench with all that loose, wet dirt.....

That trench is kind of like the mistakes or "errors" or maybe hurt feelings we've made in our life. Jesus wants to be the water healing and making new again, but first the hard work of filling in the blank ditch of hurt has to happen. We have to take action and initiative, we have to WANT to make things right. Then, when we honestly know "I've done all I can to make this better",  we can step back and rest.
 Everybody has a hurt, or a mistake, or just an annoyance they're working on in life. Saying "I'm fine" when someone asks you how you're doing doesn't mean "I never struggle anymore."

Life is by nature a struggle.
We have to work on it.
We have to sweat.

At the end of ditch filling, I scampered over to our neighbor's house and dove into his pool. Ah, it felt so refreshing, so lovely. Water revitalizes. It is essential for our existence on earth. Human brains are 75% composed of water; human blood is 83% water. A single tree gives off 70 gallons of water per day in evaporation! Water's pretty cool. Without water--ahem--we die.

 Jesus is the water of Life.

So, even though life's tough, and even though it's a struggle, and even though sometimes it seems like it would  be better to "ditch" the whole project (pun intended=-P) remember this: at the end of the day, Jesus is our reward. He wants more than anything for us to BE in Him--literally derive our worth from being His. That's all He ever wanted, because it's all God ever wanted, and Jesus does all the Father asks Him, even if that means loving us when we're at our ugliest.

On that note....this is what He says about it....

"I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. 

Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. 

Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 

This is my command: Love one another." 

John 15:15--17