Truth in the Flower Bed

While hoeing weeds in the flower bed, over a period of a month, I discovered several truths…

Truth #1: I can get rid of weeds, but within the next week, I’m still getting rid of the same weeds!

Note: I manage to uproot some of my sinful activities or thoughts and “voilà!” those same ones crop up again, at different times! I’m forced to keep noticing them and uprooting them. This is a chore that never ends and if I think it’s ended, I am so wrong.

Truth #2: Some weeds manage to entwine their roots around the base of the flowers, or they grow next to the base of the flower. So, when I attempt to remove the weed, often I uproot the flower too. Only once in a while, can I return the flower after disentangling it from the weed.  Usually, I have to replant the flower hoping it will grow again, or replant another flower.

Note: Every now and then, a sin will get entangled with a good work, and to remove the sin I’ll have to stop the good work. Many people would leave things as they are and let the sin remain, so as not to stop the good work, but God wouldn’t except good works based on or connected with sin under the Law of Moses (Deut. 24: 17-18), and I doubt He has changed. It’s better to stop the good work for a time to get rid of the sin. The good deed can be restarted.

Truth #3: Many people love gardening, which includes weeding, sweating, getting dirty and an aching back. I find it too hard. But the results of hard work are stunningly beautiful flowers or veggies. I can tell who is willing to spend the effort and time in weeding.  My flowerbeds are not stunning like the house further north on State Route 9 with amazing bulb flowers everywhere.

Note: It takes a lot of effort to uproot sinful thoughts and activities. Some people will take the time and effort to keep an eye on their soul, and as soon as they see a sin cropping up, they do what it takes to get rid of it. Their lives are a stunning example of goodness and greatness. Most of us aren’t as vigilant. We have to be told we have a problem when our life is a mess and the clean-up a whole lot harder.

Truth #4: The absolute best time to do any weeding is after a deep watering, a good rain or even a violent storm, it doesn’t matter—water perfectly loosens the ground so I can easily (although still bending over and grunting a bit) pull out the weeds along with their roots!

Note: Most of the time, after trials and tragedies, my sins are more easily rooted out because my life has been properly shaken up!  Ouch.  King David found that out many times.  King Rehoboam had to be humbled in 2 Chronicles when Shishak the Egyptian Pharaoh whirled in to conquer Jerusalem—Rehoboam repented and God sent Shishak back home.

Positively Thinking

In math class, I learned to flip back and forth constantly between positive and negative numbers, while still maintaining some semblance of sanity.

The same goes for Life. With every positive there is a negative, and sooner or later we will flip between both—upside/downside, pro’s/con’s, happy/sad, life/death, rich/poor, gain/loss, and good/evil.

In mathematics, we can do this flipping safely: using a pencil, eraser, calculator, paper, and viewing the number line to infinity.

But, when life presents us with negative experiences, we many times tend to handle them badly: not being able to view the time line, not being able to erase.

The main difference between math and real life is that we don’t have to sit around waiting for the problems to come at us, we can personally and daily add more positives in our life to offset the negatives; and when we do face the big or little negatives, we can remember people like Job—who went from having everything, to having nothing, and then back to having everything, again.

He turned out okay.

We can, too.

TR