Weeds in the Garden

Posted Mar 26, 04:39 PM by Kay Camenisch

Along with warmer weather, longer days, robins, and daffodils, spring brings the opportunity to garden. This year, we started out behind in our gardening. Last summer the weeds didn’t seem bad, life was busy, and the garden was producing abundantly, so we let the weeding slide. Consequently, a carrot-looking intruder tried to take over our rhubarb patch. Little bunches of red and green rhubarb popped through the soil, but we had to look closely to find them, because the wild carrots had a head start.

It was a major task getting rid of those weeds. As we dug, I was reminded of a truth Michelle shared with me in EQUIP years ago. Our lives are like a garden. We plant vegetables and flowers in neat rows so we can reap nourishment and beauty. However, weeds inevitably invade, and we have to attack them frequently and thoroughly to keep them out.

The Lord showed Michelle that the longer we continue bad habits or allow sin to grow in our lives, the harder it is to get rid of them. Unchallenged weeds become more difficult to remove because they get tougher, their roots grow deeper, and they grow in number. Soon they begin to crowd out the good things we’ve planted.

We saw the weeds last summer, but we never pulled them. Consequently, when we removed them last week, some of their roots went so deep that we had to dig down twice with a shovel to get to the bottom of the root. Others were clumped together, requiring two or three digs to free the roots. It was hard work. It took several sessions of digging to restore order in the rhubarb patch.

Unlike our wild carrot weeds, sometimes we are blind to sin that is lurking in our lives and the weeds grow unnoticed. However, sometimes we see it and just don’t want to deal with it. Maybe we enjoy the sin. Maybe we dread the hard work or discipline of change. For whatever reason, if we allow the weeds of sin in our lives to go unchallenged, they will grow and multiply, making it harder to remove them.

I wonder if I ought to work in the garden more often. Thanks to Michelle, when I see weeds in a garden, I think of the weeds in my own life. It’s good to have regular reminders and outside motivation for an unpleasant job. Now, every time I work to remove weeds in the garden it motivates me to keep my heart and life free of weeds. Thanks, Michelle, for the reminder.

“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life.” –Prov. 4:23

Additional insights:

I only helped with the weeding about thirty minutes, and my back complained. It got tired from bending over and fighting to pull the roots up. However, the fatigue I felt at the time is nothing compared to the pain in my lower back I’m feeling now, two days later. If we let the weeds grow in our gardens, the consequences spread beyond our own lives and hurt those around us.

The job is not finished yet. There are still some weeds growing right on the edge of the rhubarb patch. If we don’t conquer them too, they’ll quickly spread into the area we have cleared. –But that’s another lesson. We won’t address that now.