A Lesson in Weed

I could never claim that weeding is fun, however I still find aspects of it enjoyable. Weeding is a good way to get alone. Try as you might, it isn't easy to get folks around you to help. When was the last time you heard someone say, "Hey! Let's all go weed for a couple hours! It'll be a blast!" Yeah right. Weeding is to me one of the ultimate ways to get time to think, and since they grow in such abundance, there is lots of time to mull things over. 

 Today the weeds had a lesson for me. There's some swamp grass under one of our windows that was designed (Yes, designed - evolution is not smart enough to make this plant!) to never be eradicated. The tiniest piece of root left behind...and it'll all grow back. It's also very brittle, to ensure that root gets left behind. A few months ago I did my best to chase down the roots and get it all out, as Round-Up wasn't touching it. I ended up quite dirty with a lot of roots and a big hole in the ground. Needless to say, I must've missed some. It was growing up again within a week. 

New tactic -- just let it grow! Let's see how big it gets! This week it hit the limit. Around 5 feet tall and just going to seed. Since I don't want MORE of this stuff, I figured I better yank it again before those seeds got around. I found today that pulling a single stalk of this stuff out would undoubtedly leave the roots behind as it would snap off. However, if I grabbed a large cluster of stalks, I could pull up a vast quantity of dirt and (nearly) all the roots! I won't dare to say I've got it all - I know better now. 

Some of our weeds pull better individually, and these...are best left to grow and be yanked together. This very simple observation made me think about the old motto, "United we stand, divided we fall." In this case, untrue. Why? I came up with a couple reasons. As I thought about it I realized that standing together on the wrong foundation won't keep you from being wrong. No matter how many people agree together to do or believe something wrong won't make it right, and won't keep them from judgement some day. The weeds were in soft dirt that readily gave way when force was applied. The foundation is important. 

Where do we stand? The second realization was that you can't succeed if you aren't in God's will. Performing the role of gardener could be seen as a type, similar to how God works in our lives. Even the weeds that have a strong foundation can't win if the gardener doesn't want them there. No matter our foundation, it is vital for us to be in God's will to succeed. Where are we planted? I left those weeds there to grow for quite some time so they'd be easier to remove when the time was right. Inaction on God's part in our lives is not a good thing, nor is it indicative of a lack of His existence. 

Grow well, grow strong, grow with a good foundation, grow, grow in the place God has for you.