I love the near-instant satisfaction of working in the yard.
When it’s tended to regularly the results can be fabulous. Just like our soul. Tending to and caring for the health of our soul can result in its blossoming into the wonderful entity God intended. The opposite is also true, right?
My work in the yard involves a lot of weeding. Identifying and removing the stuff that doesn’t belong. Looking back on this past summer’s weeding, I learned a couple of things:
If I work in the yard a lot I can usually easily spot weeds.
The more weeds I remove, the easier it is to see new weeds as they pop up. But, when I ignore the yard for a few weeks things seem overwhelming and I tend to want to give up. When I don’t tend to my heart I get short-tempered, negative, resentful, discouraged and feel hollow inside.
Most weeds only look tough and invasive.
Many times the expansive growth on top of a weed is contrasted by a single thin root that goes into the ground. Just like sin. Seemingly overwhelming and tough-looking….but underneath, there’s usually just a single thin thread of a lie. The enemy’s ways seem overpowering and overwhelming but they are no match for the might of God.
Weeds are sometimes hard to remove.
Some weeds go deep. Nutgrass is the worst for me. If you don’t dig deep and get the little nutlet at the bottom of the thin root, it comes right back. But many weeds, are quite weak. The Lord wants us to work with Him to remove with the weeds in our soul. Some may take years to remove, some just days.
Best of all, I’ve noticed that when I focus on the Lord and spend quality team with Him, some of the weeds around my soul seem to die on their own. Satan cannot be in the presence of the active, robust, shining nature of God in our lives.
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I pray that each of you will tend to the garden of your soul, remember what your soul feels like when it’s healthy. Cooperate with the Lord to deal with those deep wounds. Best of all I pray that you are so focused on Him that you can watch God work as weeds wither a natural death. In Jesus’ name, Amen
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Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. 3 John 1:2
