Weeding

It is HELLISHLY hot in the Midwest these days.  And no rain where we are.  Farmers are losing their crops.  Gardeners are losing their gardens.  And families expecting to have to sell their houses in the next few months are working desperately to keep their lawns alive.  The heat and drought are killing everything.

UGH . . . the yard weed I hate the most

Except the weeds.

Fascinating phenomenon, isn’t it?  Weeds just grow the heck out of themselves no matter what.  Profitable plants – plants that give us food, plants that beautify our landscape – they require care.   They require water and sunshine and sometimes extra nourishment on our part.  We have to work to make those plants grow and prosper.  We have to fight to keep them alive.

But not weeds.  They will thrive no matter what the weather and despite our efforts to, literally, root them out.  Phil from church is a bean farmer.  Because they are now farming without herbicides (the New Age of farming), they are having to pull the weeds in his bean field by hand.  Daily.  In 100-degree heat.  Wow.

My friend Jana waxed philosophical on the weed issue the other day on Facebook.  “The ‘weeds’ in my life don’t require anything to grow, thrive and do just fine.”  Ain’t it the truth.  If I wanted to, I could sit back, relax, and let my sins and bad habits swarm over me – and swarm they would.  They require NO coaxing, NO nurturing, NO feeding.  They feed on me and will overcome me completely if I don’t do them daily battle.

The Christ-like qualities, however, require nurture and tending.  They don’t grow of their own accord; they must be cultivated.  Actively.  Daily.  None of this Carl Rogers baloney that we're all basically good inside and are just messed up by our environment.  No parent who really paid attention to their children could believe that nonsense.  We are born selfish, little snits.  We must be trained to be good -- cultivated to do right.  And the change only becomes a genuine change of nature when Christ gets involved.

Just another reminder I needed today.