Life Lessons from Weeds

I have come to the conclusion that the war on weeds is a losing battle.  Although I live in a lovely gated retirement community and most of the yard work is done for us, I can still see those critters hugging close to the ground or standing tall and proud among the flowers.  Unfortunately it doesn’t matter how many times one can rake and pull it’s a never ending battle and we are losing.

While sitting with my morning coffee and gazing out the kitchen window I realized that our war with these hostiles have taught me several valuable lessons.

Resolution: First of all ….the weeds need pulling.  I have several bad habits that each need to be pulled from my life.  I make wonderful resolutions and fully intend keeping them.  Probably within a few hours I have already either forgotten or did the very thing I have resolved not to do.  The politics of the day are very upsetting to me.  I have resolved not to worry about what is out of my control.  However, watching the news and reading the paper, my resolution on worry disappears and I become angry and upset. Why isn’t God doing something about this?  Surely He must disapprove at the violence and the perverting of justice in our society.

Habits: I have made it a habit to start the day with a cup of coffee and my Bible.  The weeds are also habitual.  They disregard whatever sprays, or pulling we do.  They may give up a few of their kindred but there are others willing and able to take their place.    Every morning I see new ones. The famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” I wish I could amend some of my bad habits as easily as the weeds regenerate themselves.

Winning battles: For most of us, every day is a battle of some kind.  We scrabble to make a living; we are determined to be kind to our spouse for leaving dirty clothes on the floor; we forgive the neighbor whose dog just pooped on my grass!  Some battles we can win, but we must accept the fact that many will be lost.  The weeds lose battles but they continue to thrive and come back for more.  Ah, they are resilient.  So must we be. 

Losing or winning a war.  We may win the war on weeds for a short time.  We may conquer our bad habits; make friends with the dog and the spouse will even put the dirty clothes in the hamper.  But sooner or later, these same issues will come again.  For all the weeds we pull there are hundreds of others waiting to take their place.

You and I are part of this world now.  We try to be the person that God would have us.  We know however, that sooner or later we will be buried in the earth.  However, God doesn’t leave us there.  We are promised a better life than this one.  The weeds of the earth will be left behind and we can look forward to a New Heaven and New Earth.  There will be peace for all mankind.  We won’t need to worry about the weeds!!