Weeding...

So, you think this is going to be a blog about gardening?? Fooled ya!
I feel like a cheesy person writing this post, but it's on my heart.
Might be the fact that we spent a good 9 hours out in the sun yesterday running a garage sale ($528... yeah!!!) or just the fact that I've heard analogies like this in the past and they're all flooding back. But really, I do feel like I'm supposed to write this post... so if you're the one that it's for, will you (one of you four that read my blog) let me know with a comment or an e-mail or something because otherwise I might just feel like a fool.

So. Enough of that. We have this rose garden out front (Hang with me, no it's not about gardening). We moved into a home that used to be occupied by a 93 year old widow (read: a woman with a lot of time on her hands and much more gardening patience than the twenty/thirty somethings that moved in). The roses themselves really aren't that difficult to take care of, and they're BEAUTIFUL in the summer. I have friends who come over just to stand in the middle of the 35 bushes (when we moved in there were about 70... yikes!) and smell their sweet aroma. My favorite thing to do is take a mason jar of roses to a friend. Well, this year I've noticed they're a little more wilted and not as fragrant as usual. Yes, still beautiful, but not as beautiful as they could be. Then it hit me. Could it be the nasty weed invading the entire flower bed? MORNING GLORY. (As a side note, I always thought morning glory was either a flower, a pet name given to someone you love, a slow movie that looked much better on previews than it actually was, or just an Oasis album all my friends owned but I did not. Okay, did clicking on that link totally take you back in time like it did me!?)
In case you don't know, Morning Glory, aka Vine Weed,  is a vine-like weed that grows insanely fast and can cover a flower bed or lawn in days if not hours. At first, it looks harmless, just a few sprouts can pop up anywhere, but if you let it go a few days, it will soon cover EVERYTHING. The most frustrating thing it does is it twirls and wraps around the plants it's near to try to choke them out.
So yesterday, after standing out in the heat and having to stare at that nasty weed all day, I went Walker-Texas-Ranger on the Morning Glory. I spent about an hour clearing it out, pulling it out, and trying to gently rip its fingers off the beautiful roses. I felt like God. And before you think I'm being blasphemous with that last line, just hang with me. While trying to destroy this weedy spider-haven enemy, I was thinking about how sin is like a weed. It can grow so quickly, sometimes without us even noticing (I swear one day there wasn't any morning glory, and the next day it's all I could see). We're like the roses. Beautiful, fragrant, needing to be pruned and shaped in order to reach our full potential. Sin is like the morning glory weed. Looks nice, even like another flower. What harm could that pretty vine do? But, soon, it wraps around us and tries to choke us out. God is like the gardener (see what I mean), gently tugging (okay, so I was violently ripping, turns out I'm not a great illustration of this) away at the sin and removing it so that we can breathe.
One of (the many) ugly things about sin is that it creeps in to kill, it slowly chokes things out, and sometimes it takes casualties with it. My pile of weed debris was sprinkled with rose petals and even some roses that fell victim to the nasty plant.
So, although you might think this is cheesy for me to post, I'm doing it anyway.
It's a reminder for me.
Stay vigilant. On guard at all times.
Don't let sin in.
The enemy corrupts, steals and destroys.
Usually it's slow... little by little until soon I'm covered and can't see a way out.
Good news? I don't have to can't do it on my own.
He is here to help.
To guide, protect, and convict.
He is the Chuck Norris to my sin.
He'll remove it, rip it off if he has to.
It will hurt, but I'll be better because of it.
Because of His grace, He'll actually use it in my life to produce greater character, perseverance, and strength.
So, if you're like me, anytime you see a weed now you'll be able to have a little devotional time with the Lord.
God, don't let me be so lazy as to think I don't have to do a little maintenance on my soul. I may be a lousy gardener, but I can't afford to be a lazy follower of You.

p.s. After telling Matt about my parable of sorts, he said... "If you think Morning Glory is bad, you should see Kudzu." So, if you need to switch them out, go ahead.
p.s.s. After googling Morning Glory for some type of photo, I found that people actually plant this stuff. DON'T DO IT!! :)