Excavating Your Life: Clearing the Ground for Growth
In construction, excavation is a crucial step, but it’s also a powerful metaphor for the changes we need to make in our own lives. Just like preparing the ground to build something strong, we must remove the things that hold us back if we want to grow and flourish. The Bible often speaks about removing the bad in our lives to make room for what’s good, pure, and righteous. Here’s how excavation parallels our personal and spiritual journey:
Salvage the Good: Before any heavy work begins, we carefully salvage the good plants and trees. In life, this is about recognizing and holding onto the things that bring value—your gifts, your character, and the people who truly support and nurture you. While we may need to clear out a lot, not everything has to go. Identify the positives and protect them.
“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.”
– Paul The Apostle – MSG
Clear Out the Weeds: Before excavation can truly begin, we must clear and grub the land—removing all the weeds. Weeds don’t need help growing; they take root easily and choke out what’s good. In your life, weeds represent the past hurts, toxic habits, and people who plant and fertilize negativity. These are the contaminants holding you back from growth. You must uproot them before you can rebuild. In the same way, before laying a foundation, you must scarify the soil by removing the impurities. This process is essential if we want to build something solid and healthy.
Over-Excavate and Recompact: Sometimes, we must dig deeper than expected—over-excavating the site to ensure that everything beneath the surface is stable. This is like going deeper into our own hearts to expose the hidden issues that could cause cracks later. We can’t see all the problems on the surface, and ignoring them leads to “settling,” where the foundation of our lives becomes uneven. Over-excavating represents digging into the areas of our lives we might rather avoid—our insecurities, fears, or unhealed wounds—but preventing future problems is necessary.
Deal with the Hard Dig: Breaking Through Obstacles: There are times when regular digging doesn’t cut it—known as “hard dig” or refusal. That’s when we bring in the pneumatic hammer or, for the more stubborn challenges, blasting. This represents the tough work of breaking through life’s most difficult obstacles. Whether it’s addiction, deep-seated bitterness, or a broken relationship, these obstacles won’t move without serious effort.
But even in the blasting process, we have to be careful. You don’t want to destroy the good along with the bad. This is why, when blasting, we inspect the surrounding properties, checking on our relationships, commitments, and values to ensure they aren’t damaged by the force of the work. We also monitor the vibrations caused by the pneumatic hammer or blasting, ensuring we aren’t disturbing the foundation of the homes (people and organizations) around us.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.”
– Moses – NKJV
Reflection: Building on Solid Ground: As you embark on your excavation—removing the bad to make way for the good—ask yourself: What are the “weeds” I need to clear? What hidden obstacles must I over-excavate and confront? This process isn’t easy. It requires honesty, effort, and sometimes external help. But in the end, it’s all about preparing the ground for something greater. When we do the hard work of digging deep, breaking through, and clearing away the bad, we build a foundation that will withstand whatever life throws at us.
“It takes wisdom to have a good family, and it takes understanding to make it strong.”
– Anonymous
Don’t be afraid to do the deep work. The stronger your foundation, the more resilient you’ll be when the storms come.
Jerry
