Gardening the Soul: Weeding the Garden,2

Choking Weeds

Michael Pollan began his gardening experience with Ralph Waldo Emerson's optimism that weeds are simply plants whose virtues we haven't discovered. (Did Emerson garden?!) Experience quickly shattered the romance. He found that once these malevolent weeds are rooted in the garden, they will have to be wrestled out before they will leave. And their passion is to throw raucous parties for their "seedy" friends, who also want to linger when the party is over. But it is certainly no party for the gardener.

It is no wonder, then, that Jesus used weeds as a picture of the adversaries of a Christian's growth: What was sown among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. (Mt.13:22). Weeds in the garden and in life share many life-strangling characteristics.

The Weed of Worry
I am a champion worrier whose skills have been honed through years of practice. Like Laura Simon, I can worry over the trivial as well as the eternal: “If there isn't an impending catastrophe that requires my concern, I will find an ordinary event, some more modest matter, to fret over and dwell on."

During my early thirties I led a small church. In my journals from those years, I sound like a fretful mother agonizing over her baby's health:

• "Are we going to make it?"
• "How important are numbers?"
• "Should we continue to meet in a home?"
• "Do I measure the ministry on the basis of my growing maturity? or the church's? or both?
• "Are my gifts best suited for a pastoral ministry?"
• "Would the church be better off without me?"
• "Should I go back to school to earn my doctorate so I can teach at a college or seminary?"

Jesus instructed those choked by worry to observe the growth of wild flowers: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. The valleys in the Black Hills of western South Dakota are home to a stunning abundance of wild flowers—the creamy lilies, the sunny black-eyed susans, and the shaggy bergamots. Such effortless splendor is breathtaking.

Jesus had a stinging question for us faithless worriers: If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? The wild grasses live for a season. We will live forever. Isn't God much more committed to beautifying his eternal creatures? When it came to worries about my professional life, I didn't know the future. But as I learned to trust the flowering of my life to the Gardener's hands, I relaxed. I knew that my heavenly Father was much more committed to turning my shabby garden into a creation of greater beauty than the mountain meadows.

What worries are choking your life? Do you worry about losing your job? about the safety of your child? about your retirement income? about potential severe weather? Jesus challenges us: Do not worry, saying “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” ... Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness—and all these things will be added onto you. If we direct our time and energy and thoughts toward pursuing God, He will take care of the rest!