I wrote this post a bit ago but didn’t feel the time was right to post it. Now it seems appropriate as we are in the new Hebrew year, as I discussed last week, and have entered what is called “the Ten Days of Awe.” It is a time in the Jewish culture where you examine your life, your sin, things you might need to let go of, or places where you need to offer forgiveness. All of this is done in preparation for Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. I will write more on that later but for now I hope this speaks to you as it did me.
About two months ago on a Saturday in late July my husband and I spent the entirety of our day doing yard work. We had recently received a letter from our HOA about the weeds in our tree bed. The funny part is there is no longer a tree there, just the remains of a stump we inherited from the previous owner so I don’t know if you can still actually call it a tree bed. It was really just a large empty bed of a decaying tree stump and dirt taken over by weeds. Jason, my husband, would weed eat it regularly to keep it from looking completely unsightly, however, that clearly was no longer enough to satisfy the HOA.
We knew the time would come, it is just hard to find a whole day to do yard work when you have a 2-year-old—and who wants to hire a babysitter to do that? But clearly, we had run out of time.
Late July in Houston is about the worst possible time of year to do yardwork. That day was a good example – it was roughly 100 degrees and 100% humidity! We started at 7:30am to try to beat some of the heat and the sun. As we worked the Lord started talking to me about how our lives can look a lot like our tree bed.
It starts out pristine and well-kept with nice borders to keep the weeds out, and yet over time a little grass creeps through the border and a weed pops up here and there. If we would just pull them every couple of days, it’s manageable and takes little time to deal with. If we ignore it though, it multiplies; it seeds; it creates more and the weeds grow taller. Then it’s easier to just use the weedwhacker to keep up appearances because the idea of pulling the weeds is too daunting of a task. Sure, it’s slightly messy looking, but is it really that terrible?
As I was using a shovel to dig up the dirt and get the weeds out the Lord said, sin is a lot like these weeds and the grass when you don’t deal with it. Often times people deal with it on a surface level, but they don’t get to the root of the problem. Until you get to the root, it will continuously return and be given room to multiply and create a place for the enemy to hide.
When I was little, I loved to earn money. My dad would pay me $.01 for every weed that I pulled in our yard. The catch was it had to have the root to be counted. See, my dad knew that if I just pulled the plant part the weed would just grow back. Unfortunately for him I was bound and determined to earn money, and I think he discovered he had way more weeds in the yard than he ever thought. Some days I wouldn’t even go into the house after school, I would just throw my backpack on the porch and sit down to start picking, moving section by section as if I was treasure hunting. I wish someone had paid me for every root I pulled yesterday!
How many times do we go to God recognizing our sin but not actually thinking about the “why” of the sin and getting to the root of the matter?
For instance, if I am worrying about something, repenting for worrying is good but realizing that my worry is rooted in my lack of trusting God is the bigger issue to deal with. Or if I am gossiping, maybe my bigger issue is pride and wanting to make myself look better by making others look bad.
In Ephesians 4:26-27 it says, “26 ‘In your anger do not sin’: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.”
The problem with ignored sin is, not only does it seem to multiply and grow deep roots becoming harder and harder to deal with, it also often brings with it other sins and open doors for the enemy to gain access into our lives.
There is a passage in 1 John 2:15-17 that says:
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
I’ve heard two different pastors talk about this passage in the last several years and the fact that the sin we deal with in our lives falls into one of the three categories. Often, we will have a tendency toward one particular category, and the enemy likely knows what that category is, so you too should learn what it is so you can be on guard.
That’s not to say it doesn’t change. Certainly, in my own life the sin I struggled with when I was in my 20s looks different from the sin I struggle with in my mid-40s. But if we can’t find and recognize the root, how will we get set free from it?
I love how God speaks through ordinary things—like a bed full of overgrown weeds. As we finished pulling all of the weeds and then planted new plants and added mulch to hinder the growth of future weeds, I couldn’t help but continue to see the parallels to our spiritual lives. Not only did we take out what was bad but then we put back things that are beautiful and desirable, and set up measures to help prevent the growth of future weeds (sin). And then of course we watered them so they might continue to grow and thrive.
Hopefully, the more we grow in our walk with the Lord, the less we struggle with sin and the better we become about dealing with the weeds quickly and by the root, so we don’t get overwhelmed and end up with a mess of things. And hopefully our HOA is as pleased with our new beautiful bed as we are!
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