Howard Buchanan went to be with the Lord several years ago, but Tonya and I had the pleasure of knowing him as our neighbor for approximately ten years. Howard was a Baptist preacher and a very good man. He was also laid back and slow moving.

The house Tonya and I lived in during those days had a long, gravel driveway that ran right past Howard’s house. That driveway had a lot of ditch line, and I was constantly mowing that ditch line’s grass with my weed eater to keep everything looking nice. It was a major battle every spring and summer. Tonya thought I was crazy for worrying so much about that grass, but I was in full “king of my castle” mode back then and wanted the place to look nice.

One day I was talking with Howard and somehow the subject of the ditch line’s grass came up. Actually, it came up because I brought it up, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, after listening to me rant and rave about the amount of work it took to keep that grass mowed, Howard looked at me with a wry smile and a twinkle in his eye and offered the following assessment: “It’s just grass.”

So there it was, a perfect summation that placed the problem in its appropriate universal perspective. Three words. Just three little words. But those words served as a friendly rebuke to me, one that I’ve never forgotten.

In the days since then there have been other times when I’ve faded into obsession over something that wasn’t worthy of such time and energy. And more than once Tonya has looked and me and said with a grin, “It’s just grass, Russell.” That’s her way of saying, “I think you’re acting a little nuts over this.” Each time she utters that phrase my mind goes back to Howard and that ditch line.

There’s a cutesy saying that says, “Don’t sweat the small stuff, and everything is small stuff.” Unfortunately, however, that saying is a lie. If life has taught us nothing else, it has taught us that some stuff truly is major. Ah, but let’s admit that a great deal of life really doesn’t amount to much more than grass in a ditch line, and such things are only as big a deal as we choose to make them.

Perhaps, right now, you find yourself obsessing over something. If that’s the case, you need to ask yourself, “Is this thing truly worthy of my obsession or is it just grass?” Like I said, some stuff in life is major, genuinely major, and if you are dealing with something from that category I certainly don’t mean to minimize your problem. No, the part of life I’m talking about houses all of that minutia that will ultimately amount to nothing more than grass. You see, if that’s the category of stuff that is driving you crazy lately, you should consider yourself rebuked. The rebuke comes courtesy of a wise old preacher named Howard Buchanan who is now in heaven not worrying about anything, and it comes complete with a wry smile and a twinkle in the eye. And it’s my sincere hope that you will accept it in the attitude in which it is offered and apply as much of it as is needed.