“Prov. 24:30               One day I walked by the field of an old lazybones,

and then passed the vineyard of a lout;

³¹          They were overgrown with weeds,

thick with thistles, all the fences broken down.

³²          I took a long look and pondered what I saw;

the fields preached me a sermon and I listened:

³³          “A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day off there,

sit back, take it easy—do you know what comes next?

³⁴          Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life,

with poverty as your permanent houseguest!” (The Message)

I weeded the vegetable garden and the flower beds about two weeks ago.  I did a very fine job, if I do say so myself!  I even mulched the flower beds.

However, I have noticed quite a few weeds are already invading.  There is an old saying that “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”  The saying works at many levels, and not just at the national or military level.  The price of freedom from weeds is also eternal vigilance.

But here’s the thing: I am irritated that I worked so hard to finish the weeding work, and my work didn’t stay finished.  Irrational irritation?  Of course!  But there it is anyway.

According to Genesis 3:18, once the man and woman had disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, they were doomed to struggle with thorns and thistles.  Whether you believe the Bible or not, the thorns and thistles part makes sense.

Jesus warned that weeds come in various forms.  There are internal weeds, as well as external ones.  He said that the “seed” of the Kingdom of Heaven could be choked out in our lives by weeds.  And when it came to defining the weeds, Jesus named names!

“Luke 8:14   “And the seed that fell in the weeds—well, these are the ones who hear, but then the seed is crowded out and nothing comes of it as they go about their lives worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun.” (The Message)

Worrying about tomorrow, making money, and having fun—sounds like the story of my life.  However, be careful!  It is not tomorrow, or money, or fun that is the problem.  It is worry about those things that threatens to choke out everything in my life that is good.

The Greek verbs in the latter part of this verse are in the present tense, which suggests an ongoing struggle with the weeds.  There is no reprieve from the hard work of weeding out things in our life.

Are you sufficiently depressed yet?  Lift up your hearts!  I have good news!

But first, a story.

When I was young, we had a huge garden.  The rows seemed to go on forever.  When I was old enough to help in the garden, my mom would send me out to hoe and weed the garden, while she finished up the breakfast dishes.  I hated hoeing.

But, in a little while, I would hear a sound behind me, my mom with her own hoe catching up with her intentionally slow son.  Soon, we would be talking and laughing, and we were at the end of our respective rows.  Then, we would turn around and work our way back.  Row after row, until we were done.

I now cherish those memories.  There was more going on than weeding the garden.

God never calls us to the garden alone.  He is with us.  His companionship makes the difficult work, if not easy, at least doable.  And, at the end of our lives, we might just find a clean and productive garden, with produce not just fit for a king, but produce fit for The King.

(One of the best things I read on line while preparing this blog may be found at https://bobbieschae.com.  It’s a good piece of writing on weeding!)