I used to work at a hospital in my hometown that was well know for its beautiful flowers growing all around it. They were a bright spot for the patients and employees that came and went each day. I was among those admirers as I arrived and departed for work. Every morning I would look for any new blooms. At that time the gardens were attended by a lovely, English woman who quietly attended to them each day. As a hobby gardener, who is constantly battling the invading weeks in my garden, I was curious to know how this gardener kept these gardens so free of weeds. There just had to be a special remedy as yet unknown to me. I had to know!
One day on my way in to work, I decided to just ask. “How in the world do you keep the gardens so free of weeds?”, I inquired of the gardener. Her answer totally surprised me. In her wonderful British accent, she replied, “Oh dear, you just pluck them.” Just pluck them! Was she kidding me? What, no magic formula? I was so disappointed to learn that good old fashioned, back-breaking, time consuming, pulling of weeds was the answer. I was so counting on a short cut, an easier way, something to spare me all that time and energy. It all boiled down to just plain hard work and discipline. Doesn’t it always? It also meant not letting the weeds get ahead of me by plucking them when they are small and few rather than when they have taken over and obscured the desired plants in my gardens.
What about the “weeds” in my life? Are they out of hand or am I keeping them plucked out before they obscure God? How many times have I asked God for an easy answer? How many times have I tried to beg off of the difficult road ahead? How many times have I asked him to “take away” the temptations. We want him to be “ok” with the stuff in our lives that crowds him out. That’s how it is with us. We want God to give us easy answers, smooth roads with no obstacles, to remove temptation so that we don’t have to make a decision to act on it.
Like those beautiful, weed free gardens that were the result of plucking out the weeds before they became problematic, we have to pluck the things from out lives that have the potential to separate us from God. We serve a faithful, powerful God who loves us more than we can imagine. However, he gives us free will to make our own choices. There’s work to be done on our part. Too often we try to serve him without “plucking the weeds” from our lives. We try in vain to live for him only to have him choked out by sin and the things of this world.
The weeds are different for each of us, but the result is the same. Whether its over- commitment, busyness, addiction, gossip, unforgiveness, sexual sin, and the list goes on, they separate us from God. Then instead of a healthy, growing, intimate relationship, it starves and withers. Like the weeds, it takes vigilance, checking every day for any potential culprits before they take hold and grow deep roots. Every time we put something ahead of God, say yes to temptation or fail to deal with sin, like the weeds, they grow deeper roots and get stronger, and much harder to “pluck” out.
Don’t we want our lives to be like those weed free gardens so full of healthy, beautiful, blooming plants. I want those qualities that God desires to see in me growing, standing tall, unobscured and not choked out by sin. Let the plucking begin!
Matthew 13:7, 22-23 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. --- The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries, of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. he produces a crop yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
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