The Gardener's Challenge: Weeds!

The Curse of Weeds

Weeding is my most demanding garden chore. It consumes nearly half of my time in spring and early summer. The drudgery of weeding is probably the #1 reason inexperienced gardeners never become experienced gardeners! Without an ongoing attack on this powerful opponent, my garden beds would be quickly devoured by a horde of ravenous weeds.

Genesis explains why weeds are such a robust foe:

Cursed is the ground because of you;
 through painful toil you will eat of it
 all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
 and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
 you will eat your food
until you return to the ground.  (Gen.3:17-19)

After Adam and Eve’s rebellion, no garden yielded its bounty without "painful toil" and "the sweat of your brow." “Thorns and thistles” perennially contest our work in the garden.

But if weeds are so vigorous, why haven't they covered the planet? Why were there few weeds when the Puritans landed in New England? Why don’t I see more weeds on my hikes in the Black Hills? Michael Pollan explains:
"Weeds are plants particularly well adapted to man-made places. They don't grow in forests or prairies—in "the wild." Weeds thrive in gardens, meadows, lawns, vacant lots, railroad sidings, hard by dumpsters and in the cracks of sidewalks. They grow where we live, and hardly anywhere else."

Where mankind rests, weeds rest. But wherever I plant my spade, weeds rush to challenge my claim. (Where do they come from?!) Like a child who has no interest in a toy until his sibling picks it up, weeds jealously contest my interest in the soil. Weeds are man's, not nature's, curse. When people ask me why I believe the Bible is a revelation from God, one of my answers is: “Weeds.” Weeds confirm the truth of God’s revelation.

Weeds are part of God’s overall judgment on us rebels. In addition to weeds, life is filled with “cancer and canker sores, tornadoes and tomato worms, asps and AIDS, calamity and cavities, aging and arguing, famine and fat, ad infinitum.” Why did God do this? If He had left us in Eden, how would we have recognized our need for Him? A few years ago when a friend of my brother’s was experiencing hard times, he complained: “I thought God wouldn’t give me more than I can handle.” My brother wisely disagreed: “I find that God frequently does give me more than I can handle—that way I am forced to depend on Him.”

The weeds of life will never go away. But the great news is that we don’t have to wage that war on our own. There is a Gardener who has his gloves on and a hoe in his hand, eager to help us attack those weeds! Will you invite Him into your garden?