I learned a valuable lesson this year about letting things go that grow. I live in a condo with a fenced in patio. My own little plot of land most of which is covered by concrete leaving the surrounding edges for vegetation. There were annual plants that were already there when I bought my condo. However there are also weeds that had grown amongst the plants. To be honest, I do not have a green thumb, so I’m not sure which are the plants you keep or just plain ole’ weeds? This year I had been so busy that I couldn’t attend to my little plot of land, so the weeds grew. I kept telling myself, you need to get out there and take care of those weeds, but it was easier to close the curtains on my patio door and ignore them. I would think “today is a lovely day I think, I’ll sit outside” but once I pulled the curtain back (dum, dum, dum) those weeds had now taken over my patio. The weeds not only took over, but in fact became small trees, taller than me with stalks about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. This isn’t good. One day I was determined that I was going to take care of them. I dug around, because I was always told that weeds had shallow roots, uh apparently these weeds had super-roots because I couldn’t pull them out. So, still determined, I got out my little hacksaw that came with a tool kit my brother gave me. To be honest I think a butter knife was sturdier than that hacksaw. After a couple tries I hear (SNAP!), the hacksaw broke. The weeds had become so strong the saw didn’t work. I gave up in frustration, closed the curtain, and thought “now what do I do?” A couple weeks later, I received a letter from my condo association that my weeds (now taller than the fence) were casting an eclipse like shadow on the condo complex and they needed to be removed. I was desperate, so I called my mom, have you noticed; moms have everything you need when in crisis. I borrowed her hacksaw (a REAL hacksaw) and went to town cutting down the weeds, YES, VICTORY! At least they were no longer taller than the fence, but they haven’t gone away, they are growing again because I didn’t pull them out by the roots, but it is now fall and after the first frost they will be gone and the battle will be met next spring, to be continued…
The reason for my story is to illustrate, that had I taken the time to resolve the problem at its earliest stages & not kept the curtains closed my negligence wouldn’t have affected my neighbors. Isn’t this true with the issues we have in our lives? What happens sometimes is the issues are painful and have grown into small trees that cannot be dislodged by our self. It is in fact easier to close the curtains to our heart and ignore them. We can’t enjoy God and His benefits fully because those ‘small trees’ are looming over us. Eventually, those wounds manifest themselves in such a way to affect our relationships with others. We act out from the brokenness from our hearts. When we live at the feet of Jesus our curtains are continually open to Him. He won’t let those weeds get out of control. If you have found that you currently have giant symbolic weeds choking out the beauty in life, ask Jesus for help. He wants to help you cut those out of your life. You can do it with His help, but you must be willing to work with Him to do it. It won’t be easy, it will be painful and the process might take longer than you want, but you can then experience the freedom of having a de-cluttered heart and life. Jesus always wants our plot of land to be a place of freedom, enjoyment, & peace.
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