Weeding. Do you do it?
I was a professional weeder. I was paid to weed. I was paid to mow lawns, and week wack, and prune, and lay sod, and plant shrubs and flowers. I landscaped every summer between years at university. That’s how I paid for my degree.
We would sometimes be called into properties that hadn’t done any yard maintenance in years. They were leased houses, with the proviso that the tenant would take care of the lawn and gardens. The lease term was about the come to a close and the tenant had to get the yard into shape.
I remember coming to one house that had grass so tall we couldn’t cut it with the lawn mower. We had to cut it down with a scythe, then mow it multiple times until it looked like a lawn and not a wild prairie wheat field.
The gardens were indistinguishable from the lawn. The lawn had slowly encroached on the beds and overtaken the plants. And, other weeds had grown up in the gardens and choked out the shrubs and flowers. It was impossible to get rid of the weeds and not do irreparable damage to the plants.
There seems to be no short cut to getting rid of weeds in gardens. You simply have to get down on the ground and pull them out. Sometimes you even have to dig them out. It is always better to do regular weekly weeding to pull out the weeds that appear, than to let them mature and begin to take over the garden before extricating them.
If you don’t stay on top of your weeding by doing a little bit every week, then the weeds can very easily overtake your garden. As they say,
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Jesus knew a thing or two about weeds. He told the parable about the sower of seed. Some of the seed fell on the soil, but the weeds grew up around the seeds and choked it out. He was talking about how the Word of God – the Truth – is sown in our lives, but can be rendered fruitless by weeds.
He explained that even though we may have the Truth deposited in us, it doesn’t produce anything. Why? We haven’t dealt with the weeds. The weeds overwhelm the Truth and it doesn’t make any difference in our lives.
So what are the weeds that choke out the fruitfulness of God’s Word in us?
That’s basically the culture we live in every day. Our culture tells us what we really need is more money and more stuff and everything will be better. Your worries would all be dealt with if you have more money.
Take note of the commercials on TV: buy more stuff and make more money, so you can buy more stuff and spend more money. There is a constant pressure to buy the latest and the greatest. We can easily become dissatisfied with what we have, by seeing what we could have – and we covet.
We worry that we won’t have enough, we want what we don’t have, and we think everything would be better if we had more money. Jesus said it’s this thinking that chokes out the fruitfulness of God’s Word in us.
Have you taken stock of your thoughts lately? Do you worry? What do you worry about? Are you often dreaming about more, better, or other “stuff”? Do you think that more money would make it all better?
Jesus said it’s that kind of thinking that kills the Truth in us and we become fruitless – no evidence of God’s Word in us. We must repent from that kind of thinking and put our trust fully in God. He is our provider, He is our source, He is our treasure, He is our peace.
What weeds do you need to pull out of your life? Pulling out these cultural weeds should be an ongoing strategy. Don’t let them to choke out God’s life in you.
Worries, stuff and money – it’s not the answer. Jesus is the answer.
Mark 4:18
“Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”
Philippians 4:6, 7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4: 12, 13
“I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
1 John 2:16
“For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”