"Pretty Weeds"

I am normally pretty adamant about keeping the lawn as weed-free as possible.  This year, for whatever reason, I have not treated it, and am just letting it grow as it grows.  My youngest child is loving it, because we have those really cool, pretty-yellow-and-then-turning-puffy flowers, that I never let him pick and blow from the neighbors' yards in years past.  Yep, dandelions.  I actually remember back to first getting the house, and the first thing I did was to spread weed-killer over the yard, and my oldest child could not believe the horror of my killing all those "flowers."

Maybe I've softened, or maybe I've realized that weeds stay greener longer, and if you cut them short, the green is pretty.  Maybe I've given up the battle, I'm still working through this.  I did pull a few by hand this morning on my way out, but I didn't get the root, so they'll be back.

It did make me think though of the Christian life today, and we could get judgmental and liken the story of the wheat and the tares, all the weeds growing up in the midst of the good crop, and how that parallels to Christianity today.  There is indeed much contamination in the church.

But rather, today, let's examine our own lives.  What "weedy" activities are we involved in, which might look good but are actually quite damaging?  See, my child does not know that that flower is actually a weed, and the bane of existence of those caring for lawns.  To him, they look great, so why harm them?  He does not know that, if allowed, they will take over, and be ten-fold in number next year, choking out good grass along the way. 

Much that we do in our lives is all about us, and not about God.  To those around us, it looks really good.  Who am I kidding?  To us it looks great, and only when we let bad habits grow, and multiply, just like the many seeds that we playfully blow around, do we see how destructive those habits have become.  We look back and see how much of a fruitful Christian life we have choked out, but have looked good along the way.

So, fellow believer, time to do some weeding?  And no fair blowing the seeds to the neighbors' yards.  That's just mean!  Let's let God show us what needs weeding out of our lives, in order to be more pleasing to the ultimate Gardener.  Point is, unlike me and my lawn so far, let's not give up the battle.  God tells us He's fighting it for us, with us, and He's very good that way!

Holding Fast to the Name of our Creator.

Man vs. God

I am waiting to pick up a new book, the title of which says much: "Family is Hard - Deal With It!"  I'm sure it won't tell me something I don't already know, and yet the kicker will surely be in the "Deal With It" aspect of the reading.  Just how do we deal with the "hard" in life.

I recall recently reading through Psalm 62, and one of those word pictures made me pause: 

Verse 9 says: "Men of low degree are only vanity and men of rank are a lie; In the balances they go up; They are together lighter than breath."

Interesting picture.  If you've ever weighed something in comparison to another, you know, one of those old balances that has a pan on each side, you can tell which has more weight by which pan goes up and which goes down. 

The section of the psalm preceding this verse explains how God, and God alone, is the answer for what troubles us.  The other alternative is to turn to man, to man's wisdom, and the psalmist says that in the balance, compared to God, men "go up."  Does it get any lighter than breath?  There is no substance to man's wisdom compared to God's.    This is why we are, over and over again, compelled by God to live by HIS wisdom.

Balances to the Hebrews were important tools.  Honest weights were necessary, and when it came time to strike a deal, buy some goods, or pay a debt, whatever the balance said is what the parties would go by.  There is no mistaking this psalm then, that if we rely on ourselves in the tough times, we've picked the wrong side of the balance.

God indeed is THE refuge for us.  I pray we rely on Him more today that we did yesterday.


Holding Fast to the Name of Our Creator