The Bible has so much to say about weeds and seeds and soil and plants. Jesus himself uses The Vine as an analogy, and multiple parables illustrate lessons through gardening allegories. So much of life is cultivated through the concept of seasons and growth, life and death, harvest and famine.
Lately I've been dwelling on two ideals 1) what is weeded out, allows for deeper planting in, and 2) what is planted in, will harvest out.
I'll start with the first. I've got a lot of weeds. Some I've noticed for years and just let be, others have more recently poked up around me. Some are harmful, thorny and pricking, others are camouflaged, or simply there. Some offered beauty like wildflowers for a season, but now have crept past their purpose. Some are choking out the good grass, and some can't be alleviated by me. Those I can't cut back on my own, I pray the Lord prunes and try to figure out boundaries and let go. Those I recognize, I have to do the work to pull out, yanking and straining, being stretched and clawed through.
I've only got so much soil, so much space limited by time and energy. If weeds are crowding my life and heart, there simply isn't room for what could instead produce fruit and harvest righteousness.
So then I've got to step back, gather my spades and shovels, dust off my hands on my jeans, and reexamine the seeds.
"For whatever one sows, that will he also reap." Galatians 6:7
What am I sowing? Which, is possibly more recognized by: what is producing plants?
I recognize resentment, entangling and ensnaring as I partake in conversations; I feel it coil inside me, looping around joy and delight like jungle vines. I sense envy flourish as I view some picturesque families on social media, or flip through grocery store racked magazines. I feel it deteroet my self-image as comparison encircles me and chokes me. I've either got to build my hedges so those seeds aren't planted, plant something in it space otherwise, or work to prune the trees around me so we all grow closer to the light.
I notice a critical spirit sprout from seeds tossed by other people, their words and own perspectives and conjectures swirling around me. Things I don't want to listen to, don't want to be a part of, or a sense I don't want to see the world or people through. Fencing these seeds from falling and footing in soil takes most of my energy these days.
What other seeds are planting, threatening, allowed to take root in the soil? Nothing is happenstance, or simply pleasure or entertainment, either its growing healthy fruit or rotting the tree. It either produces joy or criticism, uplifts or tears down, encourages or depresses, dilutes or nourishes.
Seeds are strewn all around. Some in packages, others just floating in the wind. The media, news, photography, conversations, books, music, and relationships all crowd for a spot in our minds and hearts and days.
I recognize the seeds I'm planting by the texture of my heart. Some friendships bring such richness to my soul that my mouth overflows afterwards with thankfulness, with wisdom, with goodness. Others lend me afterwards to speak more critically of my surroundings, of my people, of the institutions in my life. My soul feels mucky and dirty, like thick mire after filthy television, or blown way-ward by song lyrics too sexual for personal display. I could go on and on about seeds of news or TV or politics or facebook, or tea parties or dancing or inspiring biographies too.
Some seeds will never return void.
Isaiah writes, "It is the same with my Word. I sent it out and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it" (55:11). The seeds of the gospel, the Kingdom, of planting scripture and hymns and spiritual hope is a promised investment, a towering oak tree or blossoming pear.
Jesus himself notes the difference between cracked, rocky, hardened soil, and thick, rich, soil which opens the heart to understanding, listening, and seeing him (Matthew 13). Purposefully abiding with him and growing from his water, his light, his shade (John 15). Then he preaches further that those who are his disciples "will recognized by their fruits" (Matthew 7).
Not only will the marks of good soil be seen in service and attitude and daily living, but they will be heard from the lips. In Matthews, Jesus asserts: "What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart" and then Luke proclaims the truth again: "For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." What an obvious marker of the condition of the soil! Such a factual measuring line, to look at our language, our conversation, and immediately be able to assess what we are storing up, what seeds are growing, what plants are germinating. Even if the mouth wills it self to speak otherwise, it cannot for the heart will eventually leak what is in the soil (Matthew 13).
I want seeds that sprout life. That bring beautify and newness and nourish those around me. For today, for years from now, for generations, for eternity. Which means, I've got to examine my weeds and seeds, and what is pollinating what I plant.
I'm constantly cutting back and then hemming in. Pruning down, then hedging around. Digging up, then toiling through. Germinating in, then watering on.
The promised hope is that the Gardener does not leave us our own to do this. He embeds and lives in us through the power of his Holy Spirit, pruning and planting and producing what is then noted and shown as the fruits of the spirit: love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22). The outward signs of the inward soil.
Purposefully planting in scripture and solid truth cultivates the Holy Spirit within me to reap these fruits! Intentionally gathering other believers who "spur one another on towards love and good deeds" also rains the grounds of life towards a bountiful and blessed harvest (Hebrews 10:24).
In this season of weeding and planting, uprooting and growing, whittling and aerating, may God give me the grace to release the weeds and seeds that yield little fruit, and cultivate instead a depth and richness to produce life for generations to come.
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"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows , that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit real eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." Galatians 6:7-9"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who captures souls saves lives." Proverbs 11:30
"You will recognize them by their fruits..." Matthew 7:16 & 20
"What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart..." Matthew 15:18
"A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of." Luke 6:45
Parable of the Sower // Matthew 13
Parable of the Weeds // Matthew 13
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