Poop and Weeds Wednesday

This is a weekly devotional that stems (pun totally intended) from an experience I had about a year or so ago. One afternoon I was inspired to go clean up my back yard. At the time, it was filled with weeds and our dog's poop. Somewhere in between pulling weeds and carrying the loads to the trash can, I felt God whispering to me to write a devotional. So I put down my gardening tools, took off my gloves, and headed up to the computer.

This is part 3 of Poop and Weeds Wednesday.

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Thank You God for Poop and Weeds

Mark 4:3-20

"Listen. What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed... Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled among the weeds and nothing came of it. Some fell on good earth and came up with a flourish, producing a harvest exceeding his wildest dreams.

"Are you listening to this? Really listening?
‘…Whose eyes are open but don't see a thing,

Whose ears are open but don't understand a word,
Who avoid making an about-face and getting forgiven.’”

"He continued, "Do you see how this story works? All my stories work this way. The farmer plants the Word… The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it. But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it,
…and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams."

The Message Bible
Some verses omitted

Part III: Beware of Getting Poked

There are several types of weeds in my back yard, but the ones that rule, are tall, ugly, and easy to develop quite a poignant hatred toward. The worst thing about these particular weeds is that they are absolutely covered from top to bottom by painfully sharp thorns. The first time I tried to grab one of these weeds, I didn’t realize how strong these points are. This weed is particularly sturdy, and its points are especially fine. You can image how quickly I pulled back at the first stab of pain when I tried to pull it out. I drove myself to Home Depot and picked out the thickest, toughest pair of gardening gloves I could find. But no matter what I used, they didn’t protect me from being stabbed and poked. Finally, I found the trick to getting rid of these nasty plants: I have to use a gardening tool to push the plant up from under the soil. Only down by the very base, can I grasp the weeds without getting poked. It takes slow, patient, gentle work. Hurrying only yields pain.

When resolving deep issues in our lives, it take gentle patience and loving-kindness, whether the issue is our own, or an issue in someone else’s life. Sometimes we look at an issue in the life of a loved one and we want the issue to go away as quick as possible. We try to help them rip that sucker out as fast as we can! But inevitably they get hurt, and sometimes so do we. Painstaking gentleness and care must be taken.