But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. – Matthew 13:25But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat. – Matthew 13:25
Sometimes I act before I think things through or ask for advice. One example of this tendency is in my garden, where I decided to plant some mint. Although someone warned me that mint can “take over” a garden, I did not really think it could be that bad. So I planted some. In fact, I planted two kinds, one on either side of my garden.
For a while, the mint did not spread noticeably, but after two or three years, I started to see it coming up among the other perennials I had planted. It finally got so bad that some plants had to be uprooted in order to get rid of the mint. It took many hours to pull out what had spread underground and entwined around other plants.
If we are not careful, we might introduce things in our lives that can spread and cause us spiritual growth problems. We need to monitor what we hear, what we look at, and what we talk and think about to be sure we are not planting “mint.”
Besides the mint, there was nut grass, which was even worse yet! I did not plant the nut grass, but just neglected to dig it up, thinking that someday I would get to it. Clearly, I did not realize the invasiveness of this weed! Information from the internet explained that you must either get rid of all of it, or you might as well not even bother taking some out. Not only did the nut grass have a little nut on the root, but it also had a white network of roots that grew better than any plant I have ever tried to cultivate. A good share of my gardening time this summer was devoted to getting rid of this noxious weed. How much easier it would have been if I had dealt with it right away!
Like the nut grass, sometimes things come into our lives spiritually that need to be taken care of. The Lord shows them to us but we put off taking care of the situation. The next thing we know, it is like the nut grass that spread underground, choking out the good plants and making a far larger problem than if it had been taken care of at the onset.
Let us make sure no tares or weeds come up in our spiritual garden. Let’s ask the Lord daily if there is anything in our lives that needs to be taken care of, before it becomes a problem. Don’t try to hang on to those things; just let God remove them before they cause trouble.