Lessons from a Flower Bed

Lessons from a Flower Bed

This morning I woke up determined to spend some time weeding my flower bed.  Now mind you, it’s nearly mid July and my flower bed has been overrun with weeds since mid June.  Why now, you might ask, and rightly so.  Well, it happens that some ladies from church are coming over for the afternoon.  They’ve never been to my house.  It’s important that I make a good impression.  Never mind that my neighbors have had to drive by and see that flowerbed every day for a month.  I don’t know them.  My family came over last Tuesday for the 4^th of July.  But they’ve known me since I was born, and if your family can’t deal with a few weeds in your flowerbed, then life is a sad place.  Besides, they know my time is better spent in ministry than fussing with a few weeds.  Did I say few?  That was an understatement, but, oh well.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not an outdoor kinda gal.  The closest I like to get to the outdoors is a lovely walk on level ground, a raft on the pool, my deck in the early morning, or sitting on my swing enjoying said flowerbed.  I’ve avoided my swing for the last month for reasons already mentioned.  But as I said, I have company coming, so noon today found me with rubber gloves and trowel in hand. (I also had my cell phone and regular phone in case something urgent would draw me away from this project.  It did not.)

About an eighth of the way through the weeding, I said to God, “Father, you know I real-ly hate this, but if I have to do it, please speak to me while I’m working.”  Here’s a word of advice for you, “If you don’t want something, don’t ask.”  Following are God’s words to me regarding my life as it relates to a flowerbed.  Pardon the stream of consciousness format, but He spoke as things arose, and now I’m working from memory.

My life is much like my flowerbed.  It’s full of weeds that I can’t be bothered to deal with.  I’m too busy with more important issues.  Besides it only impacts my family and people I don’t know, so what does it matter.  I only find it necessary to deal with those “weeds” when my life is suddenly put on display.  Now I go and look at it from an overall perspective and feel overwhelmed.  “God, I can’t do this.  There are way too many weeds.  I don’t even know where to start.”  He says, “With one weed at a time, Judy.  Pull out the biggest ones first and go from there.”

I begin working with the big weeds.  That’s not too bad, but then I can see all the smaller ones hidden beneath.  I pull up a few and find I’ve made almost no impact.  I sit back and think for a minute.  “You know, these aren’t that bad really.  They’re kind of like ground cover.  Besides, if you have a perfect flowerbed, people think you have a perfect life.  This way they’ll know that I’m just a typical person who can’t manage to get everything done.”  I start to move on down the flowerbed, but my conscience moves me back.  Or perhaps it was God.  He said, “Judy, they may look like ground cover, but they’re not.  They’re weeds.  You can go with your emotions or you can follow what you learned in the book.”  What I learned in the book?  Oh, is there a flowerbed manual?  Did you mean the part that says that weeds absorb much needed nutrients from the soil and thus hinder the growth of the flower?  Okay, I get it.  Those little issues in my life hinder my spiritual growth.  If left untended, they will destroy the good seed and leave my life a spiritual wreck.

As I begin pulling up the little weeds, I discover something.  The fact that I had already tilled the ground to pull up the big weeds makes getting these weeds out much easier.  They haven’t taken root as deeply yet.  But it’s still very time consuming and after a while I think, “There’s got to be an easier way.”  So, I take my trowel and dig through a large area of the bed.  I figure I can do that and then go back and quickly pull up everything I’ve loosened.  But guess what; in my digging I inadvertently buried some weeds.  I’m pulling up what’s on top, but there are now many weeds under the surface that will pop up later to cause me problems.  I learned that life doesn’t have any quick fixes and when we try it, we only create problems for ourselves later.  The best thing to do is to deal with it now and deal with it right.  It’s a painful process, but the end result is well worth it.  But I’m a long way from the end.

I notice that some of my flowers are looking a little droopy, particularly in comparison to the thriving weeds.  I find myself wondering why the weeds seem to flourish with no help from me, but flowers take a real effort.  “Does that bring a verse to mind?” He asks.  I don’t have to think about it long.  I paraphrase it in my head. “Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and so many almost unwittingly find themselves on that road.  But narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life.  It takes some effort to find your way there.”

After a bit I find myself looking closely at the weeds I’m pulling.   I realize that many of them look like grass or weeds that are here and there in my yard.  I get fussy at my husband.  He needs to mow more carefully.  “That will happen,” God says.  “People will toss weeds into your flowerbed.  You have two choices: you can allow them to take root and cause problems in your life, or you can pull them out and go on.”  Of course, I will mention to my husband that he needs to mow more carefully, but I’ll try to be kind.  After all, he is mowing.  Sometimes we have to address the things that people throw into our lives so that it doesn’t continue to happen.  But we need to be careful to “speak the truth in love.”

I’m about a third of the way through the bed when I look back and think, “Wow, that looks great, but man, I’m tired.  I’m not sure that I can finish this.” Suddenly a cloud hides the sun and a gentle breeze lifts my sweat soaked hair.  God whispers, “Judy, there’s water sitting on the porch.  You can’t finish this project without taking in that life-giving liquid.  Drink!  You will find yourself refreshed.”  As I drank, I was reminded of how often I attempt to deal with issues in my life on my own.  I don’t seek the refreshing, life-giving water of the Spirit to revitalize me and redirect my course.  It’s only when I find myself spiritually depleted that I stop to drink in His presence.

I return to my labor with renewed vigor.  I remember that I purchased a few petunias to fill in some empty spots.  I go back to the area I’ve finished weeding and dig a hole to plant one.  I find that I’ve run into a root.  I start to pull it up and find that it is bigger than I thought, so I start to follow it with my trowel.  Hey, wait a minute.  This is messing with what I’ve already done.  It’s going to pull up some flowers.  Surprise, surprise, I hear God’s voice.  “Judy, don’t you know that this deep root is a big part of the problem.  It is responsible for many of the weeds you’ve pulled out already.  If you don’t get it out, your problem will just go on and on.”  So, I continue to follow the root and suddenly find that I have run into the cement that is the foundation of my porch.  I reach a dead end.  “Yep,” He says, “That happens way too often.  You’ve poured concrete over issues that you’d rather not deal with, and then it’s nearly impossible to get to them.  However, don’t lose heart, you’re accomplishing much more than you know.”

I step back and realize that I am more than halfway there, so I dig in eagerly.  When I reach the three-fourths mark, I suddenly find myself attacked by biting flies.  I keep plugging away, but soon they get absolutely unbearable.  I stop and head for the pool where I have left some Off spray.  I smile because I know what He’s going to say.  The battle always gets worse as you near the end.  The devil doesn’t want you to finish this job.  He doesn’t want a life that will be attractive to the world.  One that will reflect Christ and cause people to come and say, “How can I get what you have?”  So, he brings in reinforcements.  Your tendency will be just to keep plugging away, but that’s not what I want you to do.  I’ve given you a weapon.  Use it.  “A weapon?  What weapon.  Not Off surely.”  I’m reminded of Jesus in the wilderness and His, “It is written…”  Oh, that weapon.  My sword.  I need to keep it close; hidden in my heart; handy to come to my lips in the midst of the battle.  Anxious to get finished, I give myself a quick spray with the Off and get back to work.  I find myself still being bitten. “Wait a minute.  I used Off.  Why is this happening?”  That oh so familiar voice says, “Did you really?  You gave it what your mother would have called ‘a lick and promise.’ You’re going to have to cover yourself way better than that if you intend to fight this fight to the end.  Sometimes finishing the job requires stepping out of the battle for a bit and building up our resources.  It calls for a heavy covering of the Word.”

Amply coated in Off, I attack the last couple of feet of the bed.  I’m tired and I find myself not tossing the weeds as far as I should.  Several land at the front of the bed.  “Isn’t that what you do? Move them just far enough to work in the area that you’re now dealing with?  Don’t you know that you’ll just have to do that part again?  Get rid of them completely, Judy.”  I move up and toss them on over into the yard and move back to where I was working.  I carefully make sure that every toss lands outside the perimeter of the bed.

At last I stand up and survey the flower bed.  Beautiful!  I go back through and pull up a few strays that have shown up more clearly midst the rich dark soil.  Amazing how getting closer to what God wants us to be can point out little things that weren’t even noticeable before!  I get the rake and start to rake up what I have tossed into the yard.  I temporarily consider leaving it there as a kind of revenge for what he tossed into the bed, and then I realize that if I do that, it will only end up back in the flowerbed for me to deal with again.  So, I rake it up and resign it to the trash where it belongs.  I’m finished.  The bed is done, and God came through on his end of the deal.

I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing my lessons from my flowerbed.  Perhaps someday God will motivate me to mow the grass.  If so, I’ll share those thoughts with you as well.  But don’t hold your breath. J