Pulling More Weeds

I recently wrote about pulling weeds in my garden. I talked about how pulling weeds is one of my least favorite past times, but that it is essential to keeping a garden or flower bed looking its best.

Now, after battling another round of weeds, there is something else that I realized: the more weeds I pull, the more weeds I see.

If I were a conspiracy theorist I would guess that the weeds were put there by the government, part of a scheme to keep me weak and sore from all the pulling. Think about it, after all that weed pulling, how could I possibly have missed any?

When I am clearing out an area that is initially covered in weeds, I make so much progress that a weed or two here or there is hardly noticeable. After all, there aren’t nearly as many weeds as there once were. But when I step back I notice weeds that are still there. So those new weeds I am seeing are not new at all, but the weeds that I missed.

The first time I wrote about pulling weeds I compared those weeds to sin in our lives; we should not be satisfied with just removing some of it. With that same idea in mind, think of those missed weeds as part of the believer’s path of sanctification. When you are removing the big weeds, the smaller, almost unnoticeable weeds will begin to stand out. The “little” sins like pride and jealousy can get lost among the fornication and road rage. But once the “bigger” sins have been removed, that envy will stand out like a sore, green thumb.

As Christians, let’s keep looking to remove any sin that the Holy Spirit convicts us of, no matter how big or small.

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints.

Ephesians 5:3