Weeds

Weeds grow, well, like weeds. They grow tall and thick and quickly. They don't need much water and they can grow in terrible soil.

At church, Pastor Matt recently did a sermon on the need to pull the weeds out of our souls. The context was a sermon series on the fruit of the Spirit and how the fruit won't / can't grow if our souls are full of weeds.

The weeds will always win, Pastor Matt said, unless we get rid of them. They will continuously take over unless pulled out by the roots.

I was mulling over this sermon as I was riding my horse through a particularly thick patch of weeds in an remote pasture the other night. The weeds were over my head even as I was sitting on my horse. In other words, they were about 8-9 feet tall. This forest of unwelcome foliage had grown and flourished in spite of a particularly bad drought and in mostly terribly rocky soil and with zero effort on part of the land owner.

I then thought about the correlation of the weeds in this field and the weeds in my soul:

• weeds = sins, roots of sins, sickness of soul
• soil choked in drought = a soul with no nourishment from Scripture
• remote pasture = no community, no fellowship, no soul care-taking

As my horse and I navigated this ugly patch of tall, strong, smelly weeds, I received renewed encouragement to weed in the pasture of my soul and bring to it the water of Scripture and the care-taking of community and fellowship