The Weeds

When I was young I never dreamt for one second that living in your own house would mean you have to do the gardening.

I guess it was my mum rather than nature itself that kept the lawn mown, the bushes in some kind of order and the grass cut.

Over the last year and a half I’ve learnt the toils of cutting back bushes and mowing the lawn (grass grows really quickly!).

However, I discovered no enemy is more arduous and longsuffering than weeds.

Weeds are phenomenal, they grow back again and again.

They don’t need planting.

They don’t need good weather.

They don’t need watering.

They don’t even need soil sometimes!

As I was spraying weed killer all over my weed infested flower bed I had a bit of a moment where I felt God spoke to me.

He said, ‘What are the weeds in your life?’

I thought about this a while and after tweeting a little note of how I declared ‘war’ on weeds, the words of Romans 5:3-5 came to mind.

‘…but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who he has given us.’

Sometimes it is the very weeds of our lives that God uses to bring about hope.

It might be a situation we have no power to change,

someone who persistently winds us up,

an addiction to something that causes us to stumble.

Whatever these weeds might be, God has called us to persevere through them.

Don’t run from them, face them, rejoice in them!

As we persevere and our character is refined, we see Jesus’ victory in these situation.

We see God intervening with situations,

we see love breaking through the hearts of those that wind us up,

we see freedom from addiction.

If we persevere and don’t give into the first suffering we encounter, hope springs up.

Hope in a God that acts.

Hope in a God that saves.

Hope in a God whose love conquers all.