Thoughts from the Garden – Weeds

This morning I weeded our vegetable garden, the pathways between the raised beds were straightforward, you see a weed and you pull a weed. However when I got to the strawberry patch things changed, the weeds were tall, towering over the strawberries to the point that I couldn’t see the strawberry plants. I had to be careful not to step on the strawberries and not to pull the strawberry plants out with the weeds.

Now not to point the finger, but Vickie has kinda let the strawberry patch go; yep it’s true, my very own Master Gardener has let her strawberry patch go. Perhaps you’ll understand when I tell you that she saw a snake in that area a couple of months ago – tall weeds and snakes are not a good combination for Vickie. Of course the longer she avoided the strawberry patch the taller the weeds grew and the taller the weeds grew the harder it was to see the ground and the harder it was to see the ground the harder it was the see a snake – ain’t life great?

It isn’t that I care for snakes, but I knew that I needed to do the husbandly thing and weed the strawberry patch. I admit that I did have a hoe with me, both for weeding and for others things that I’ll leave to your imagination.

As I was weeding I was reminded that the time to weed is when weeds first appear, not when they’ve sunk their roots deep into the ground. The deeper the roots the harder it is to pull the weeds, the deeper the roots the greater possibility that they’ve woven themselves around the good plants and that you might damage the good plants while pulling the weeds, and the deeper the roots the higher the weeds - making the good plants more difficult to identify and protect.

Certainly in my own life when weeds first appear I need to deal with them then, before their tentacles wrap themselves around my thought life and heart life and character. In organizations the time to deal with weeds is when they first start to grow, while some weeds (depending on the type of weed and season) will appear and then die, most weeds will grow and propagate; what’s more no weed will ever turn into a fruitful plant, no weed will ever produce sweet strawberries. All of my hoping and dreaming and saying positive things to a weed will never make it a strawberry plant.

Then there is the snake thing, there are times in life when dealing with weeds means being prepared to deal with snakes, with adversaries. Now of course I realize that snakes have purposes and that some folks are fond of snakes, but I’m not talking about physical snakes as much as I’m thinking about venomous snakes that can invade our souls and characters and inject venom into us and our relationships. Dealing with weeds isn’t great, dealing with weeds when there are snakes around is even less inviting, but not dealing with weeds because there are snakes just isn’t smart in the long run – the short-term confrontation we’re avoiding becomes problematic with time – time is generally on the side of the weed and snake and not the gardener.

A couple of weeks ago I realized there was a weed growing in my soul, it was a new weed, one that had not previously invaded my garden. A first I thought I could coexist with the weed, in fact I kind of enjoyed having the weed and was thinking about turning it into an art form. Then I realized that the weed was toxic, giving off vapors and driving its roots deeper and deeper into my soil. Last Sunday night while praying with friends I asked my Father and Lord Jesus to remove the weed…it’s been a good week, they’ve taken care of the weed…I’ve been mindful of it, but mindful in the sense that I see the ground where it once grew…I’m glad I asked for help before the roots embedded themselves in my heart and mind and speech…before they burrowed deep into my soul.