08
2009
Sins Are Like Weeds
When you plant a garden, flower, vegetable or otherwise, you have to deal with weeds. Before you plant, you have to prepare it for planting. (I don’t know the technical terms, so bear with me.) You take out the weeds, work up the soil, and maybe add some compost to fertilize it. Then you plant your crops or flowers, but you’re not done there. You have to take care of your garden. The weeds are going to creep back in and you have to weed your garden. Ideally, you’ll get the weeds before they get too big or get their roots to deep. Weeds that are not taken care of grow quickly and can take over your garden if you are not careful. The bigger you let them grow, the harder they are to remove.
Aren’t sins much the same? God cleanses our hearts from sins, but inevitably, they creep back in and we have to make an effort to remove them. The earlier we catch them, the easier they are to correct and remove. The more we let them flourish, the harder they are to correct and the deeper the roots go. It’s also more painful.
All too often, I think we have a tendency to remove the top (visible) part of the weed, but leave the root there, making it easier for it to flourish again. What (I think) I mean by this is that we make an outward change without changing our hearts, or we try to do it all on our own strength.
Also, weeds are tricky, sometimes they look like the crop. We let them alone when they are small, thinking that they are the crop, realising much later that they are weeds, making the process of getting rid of them much more difficult. Either this, or we endup “weeding” our crops, removing what is good because we think it may look bad.
This concept is still coming together in my mind. I’m not sure I fully understand it yet, but I do know we need to be careful to examine our hearts, looking for our sins and getting rid of them while they are small and contained, lest they spread and choke out all that is good. Of course, we do this all with Adonai’s help, guidance and strength, for it is only through Him (I believe) that we can truly remove the roots of our problems.
