Weeds

One Little Weed 

 

One little weed; that’s all it took--- 

To quickly consume the plot forsook, 

What once was a lovely garden bed 

Was now a mound of weeds instead, 

One little weed allowed to stay 

By the gardener that fateful day, 

Soon filled the soil with its corrupt seed

 His work now lay spoiled by one deed. 

 

I helped my brother pull weeds on his farm today. There was a lot to do and instead of focusing on all of it, I just worked on pulling the weeds in front of me--one at a time. I don't know about you, but I find the work goes by faster when I occupy my mind with something besides the enormity of the task. So, my brother and I talked while we worked and kept our minds off the ant bites and sore fingers we soon acquired.  It was a good day for pulling weeds too, because the soil was fairly soft from a recent rain, and the weather was much more pleasant than it has been.  In talking Andrew mentioned the importance of pulling the weeds before they went to seed---which they were very close to doing! That got me to thinking about spiritual things and the parallel that weeds and sin have. Weeds in a garden bed are a lot like sin in a Christian's life. It's bad enough when sinners sin, but when children of God get wrapped up in it they not only cease to grow, but the sin either hinders or totally stops any fruit in their life. 

 

While we were weeding I asked Andrew about a weed that he had not yet pulled. He said it was pretty, and not really invasive--so he had thought about leaving it, but then he said, "Go ahead and pull it." 

Do we have an accurate picture of what sin and transgression really are? The more I thought about it the more I realized how similar sin and weeds are. There are some sins (like the pretty, non-invasive weed) that seem very harmless and controllable--the "little" sins that "don't hurt anybody." But the truth is sin always hurts someone--even if its only the one sinning.  If Andrew had allowed the weed to stay it would have cost him. It may not have taken over like kudzu or clover, but it would still have sucked up the sun and nutrients from the spot where it was. 

 

The Bible doesn't just use the word sin, it also talks about iniquity and transgression. There is a difference between the terms. I've heard it put this way, "the act that produced the fall was not a sin--inherently wrong--but a transgression--wrong because it was formally prohibited." Iniquity is gross injustice and lawlessness.  The term sin is often used to refer to both. Anytime we fail to do God's will we're sinning. I'll continue to use the word sin to refer to both.

Sin isn't always something evil in and of its self.  For example, God told David he was not to build His house, because David was a man of war. Instead his son Solomon would build the Lord's temple. Building God's temple was a good thing in itself, but it would have been wrong and direct disobedience if David had done it. Sometimes sin in our lives is just doing things that are "okay" but consuming too much of our time and resources--like that pretty weed. The Lord convicted me in this area recently. I kept on easing me conscience by telling myself the lies, "it's not a bad thing," or "I'm not hurting anyone else by doing this." But the truth is I was hurting others. Maybe not directly, but I was letting something become too important to me and thus giving too much of my time and resources to it instead of the Lord. Whenever we let something become too important to us, and tell the Lord "no" when He asks us to give it up, we are hurting others. We're hurting them by not being available for the Lord to direct and use us, hurting them by not being a good example, and lastly, we're hurting them because we're missing out on the opportunities we would see if we were in tune and walking with the Lord as we should be. If I've stepped on any toes, rest assured I had mine stepped on first. More like, I had my heart pricked and finally yielded to the Holy Spirit and got right.  I thank the Lord for the godly influences He has placed in my life--the Holy Spirit, His Word, my family, my pastor, and my friends.

Maybe the Lord is telling you to deal with something today. If He is, stop making excuses and listen!  Don't wait for the "weeds" to go to seed. It won't take long for them to multiply and get completely out of control. James 1:15-16, "Then when lust (strong desire--often not a godly one) hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.  Do not err, my beloved brethren." 

 

Matthew 13:22, "He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful."

 

Can you grow fruit in a garden bed waist high in weeds? 

 

Lastly, you can't pull weeds once and call it good at that. You have to intentionally plant good seed and then nourish it with the spiritual food of God's Word and fellowship in church with other believers. Weed seeds are always getting carried in by animals and the wind--so stay after that garden plot (your heart) and ask the Lord to search you and show you what He finds. Pull the weeds!