I had never heard of a “digging bar” till my 39th year. No excuses - I guess I never spent a healthy amount of time on the other end of a shovel. I grew up in Florida and digging there after a minute or two and you struck water… so digging deeper was not much of an option. After Florida I spent 6 years as a professional student and then headed to pushing pencils and keyboards behind a desk (and often a tie). Anyway, digging had not been a regular occurrence.

Then I moved to Pennsylvania and acquired a mini farmette (a little less than 7 acres). Up first was putting in 250 feet of water line from the house out to the stable. During that “project” I was provided with my introduction to the digging bar. And now this past weekend I got re-introduced to my favorite tool as we are putting in fence posts for a future pasture. In both of these projects the magic number was 36 - 36 inches deep, to be more precise. In digging a 3 foot hole (or ditch) - a shovel is great for going through the topsoil and the layer of clay or dirt, but then comes the fun (and the point at which the shovel becomes ineffective) the seam of shale or rock.

It is at this phase where the digging bar gets a work out. The chipping and concussion of the digging bar makes “easy” (or easier) work of progressing through the shale and rock to reach the magic depth of 3 feet. It is hard work, but work made easier with a digging bar. It is great to have the right tool for the right job (I know some of you are thinking - have you heard of a post hole digger - but sometimes it is good to do work that makes you sweat and strain with your own hands!).

As I was pounding away at a particularly stubborn seam of shale with my digging bar I began thinking, “This is why we don’t often progress deeper in our spiritual lives.” It is hard work to go deeper. It can be frustrating. It can be “slow-going.” It can just be flat out rough to progress. It may be made even more difficult without the right guidance and without the right “tools.”

We fly through the topsoil, we sweat through the clay and packed dirt and then we just hang up our shovels in frustration and exhaustion when we hit the shale.

Let me introduce you to the digging bar.