Weeds

I have never been much of a gardener. I am the type of person who sees green in the yard and is all excited because the grass is green. Except that grass is just a yard full of weeds, posing as grass and giving me the illusion that I have a thriving lawn. (I know those of you who actually care for your grass are cringing right now.) Normally I am fine living in harmony with my low maintainance grass, but now I have a garden and the weeds that didn't bother me before are encroaching on my vegetables and giving me grief.

These are not the nice "oh look a weed, let me pluck up the roots and be done" kind of weeds. I pull one sucker up and, just when I think I've got it by the roots, I find that it is attached to a massive underground system meters long and entangled under the ground. If I pull the "weed" cropping up next to my baby broccoli then I run the risk of taking out the whole row of seedlings with the hidden monster weed firmly established beneath them.

One morning as I was contemplating this dilemma, Holy Spirit spoke to me about weeds. Often times the weeds (sins, bad habits, thoughts, actions) in my life are giving me the sense that everything is normal and even thriving, when in reality they are leaving no room for good fruit to grow in my life. They are even stunting the growth of the life giving elements God has already placed within me. I thought about all the effort, time, and care it took to properly pull the mega weed out without damaging the good crops. I had allowed weeds to run rampant in my yard and now, because of my inaction and laziness, I am reaping a harvest of killer weeds. Not something you want to put in a basket and tie a bow around and "bless" somebody with. So why am I so careless with myself? Why do I allow my heart to be decieved, why do I settle for less than the glory that the Father wants to bestow on me? This penetrated me so powerfully as I was looking over my little garden plot. It made me so thankful that as the Lord unveils my eyes to the weeds in my life He will also be the one to go to the very deepest roots of my sins and destroy them and, in their place, plant fruit bearing seeds of righteousness and life.