I was working in the backyard last week, weeding flowerbeds. There was a plant in a tangled mess, intertwined with a clump of weeds, fighting for its life, being choked slowly to death. There was only room for one set of roots, and I noticed that as usual, the weeds were choking the plant and not the other way around. Seems clear from this picture of nature that we need to clear out the weeds before we can grow. We need to remove one set of roots to make room for the other. And even then, we have to continually maintain.

I believe there are areas of your life where you can slowly work over time to get them right. Just pull a weed or two here and there. Everything will work out fine. In other areas of your life, possibly in places where you struggle the most, you almost have to put two fists into the dirt and unearth the evil, get it caked under your fingernails, paper cuts on your fingers, dirt and mulch pushed deeply into the cracks of your hands, arthritic throbbing in your knuckles and joints as you ache in your back and fight a searing burn on the back of our neck from the sun. In these areas, where sin is intertwined with hope and darkness is running amok over light, where good is being choked by evil, you have to make room for the right kind of roots.

If you’re like me, you tend to get tired or uninterested and start breaking the tops off the weeds without digging out the roots. This is only a temporary fix, a momentary illusion that all is well. Meanwhile, the roots of the weeds get stronger and take a deeper hold. It’s much harder work to pull the weeds up from the roots. But the payoff is far greater. The quality of your garden is far greater. The long-term value is far greater. I wrote earlier this week about creating space. Giving something away to receive something greater. This is the reason that concept is so important. It’s not just that you won’t receive greater blessings. If you fail to remove the “old toys” you clutter your conscience.  There’s only room for one set of roots. And if you leave it up to nature to choose a survivor, you will be defeated.