See this little guy? He seems harmless. Even a little pretty. I thought so a few years ago when I first spotted him growing in the grove of trees at my farm. So I didn’t pull him out and let him grow to see what he might turn in to. Gardening is mostly trial and error and sometimes you can’t see what things are until they are bigger. I was happy to see this little guy put out pretty purple flowers as the summer went on. They are so pretty, I was happy I had decided to let him grow and I kept going. The next summer we moved to a new farm. Here I discovered these vines were everywhere and now the flowers turned into berries, and a decided I better find out just what this mystery plant was before my kids decided to start sampling them. A quick google search showed me this is in-fact a very poisonous berry that is deadly if ingested. I realized, that pretty or not, I needed to get these plants off of my farm so my kids would be safe. I began to pull. But this “beautiful” vine had spread. It had put roots down underneath the soil and shot up new plants all over. It climbed and clung to all the good trees and bushes and I realized it had even killed a few of them by taking them over. I pulled for days and while I made progress, I still saw new ones popping up everywhere. It’s a never-ending battle with this bad vine that I must fight almost every day to pull the new ones so they don’t overtake and kill my plants, so they don’t bloom and grow berries that could kill my children. And every time I pick away at it, every time I see it, I think of the weeds I let grow in my life.

I think of the tiny little sins. The things I think are harmless. The things I am not sure if are right or wrong but I don’t investigate to find out. I think of the times I have let justified anger simmer in me and thought it would not affect other areas of my life. I think of the times I have set aside a strained relationship and left it in the back kidding myself that it wasn’t affecting all of my other relationships. I think about gossip, and little-white-lies, and vanity and materialism and pride. I realize how I let their little plants pop up in my life and I let them grow until they have slowly taken over my relationship with God. Sometimes I don’t realize something is bad until it’s gotten too big, too far out of control. I don’t recognize a sin until I see it’s bad fruit, until I see it destroying something that was good in my life. But lots of times I know. I know when I take one look at that tiny little plant and I could snuff it out in a heartbeat, but I don’t. I let it grow.

You see, now I know what this plant is, I know right away when I see it to pull it out because I know what it can become, I have seen it. I have seen it kill my plants, take over my trees. I know the hard work it will be to get rid of it if I let it grow, and how much easier it is to just pull it when it’s small.

I know this too about sin. I know that those sins I don’t take the time to get rid of right away will become huge problems in my life. I know the longer I let them grow, the harder they will be to get rid of and the more likely they are to return over and over and over again. And I know that the sins that might seem appealing, that might seem harmless, can in fact be the most dangerous and do the most damage if left to grow.

And so, I pull. I put in the work. I sweat and get cuts and scratches and take breaks to catch my breath and then I start again. How will I possibly win this battle? I myself will not. This weed is too invasive. It’s growing underground where I can’t get to it without destroying my whole garden, my whole tree grove. I can pull and pull ,but it will always find a way back. This is just an analogy and they always fall short, but my sin is the same. I must be diligent. I must do all I can to not let little sins grow into big problems in my life and relationships. But I must also know this problem is bigger than me. This is why I need Jesus, who takes my sin away when it’s overgrown and smothering me. I will not win this battle, but He can, He already did.

I must do my part. I make choices daily to pull weeds or let them grow. I decide to ask for forgiveness or I avoid Him and let things get worse. I can struggle on my own or I can turn to Him and ask for help. But if weeds can teach us anything about sin and problem areas of our life, it’s that ignoring the problem only makes it worse. There is always work to be done, and He is always there to work beside us. If I want a beautiful garden, I have to be willing to pull a lot of weeds, and plant a lot of good things. If I want a beautiful, peace-filled heart, I have to be willing to get rid of the things that kill peace. St. Paul says “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outburst of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies and the like. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Gal 5:19-21 That’s a big list, and we have a lot of work to do. And yet, the results are so absolutely worth it. If we can clear the way, there will be so much more room for the Holy Spirit to grow good things in us instead: “In contrast the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such there is no law.” Gal 5:22-23