Lessons from the Lawn

Our gardening weekend went off as scheduled. I found that, indeed, I really do still dislike gardening. But I’m always so pleased with the results that it’s worth the annoyance of digging dirt out from under my fingernails. (I keep my fingernails incredibly short thanks to 16 years of piano lessons, so getting dirt under them is really an accomplishment. In addition, I wear gloves. I don’t know why or how I still get dirt packed into my nails given those two facts, but it drives me nuts.)

As I was waiting for my husband to lug the bags of mulch from the back yard to the place we were deploying it, I found myself pulling weeds out of the lawn. And getting irritated. See, about five years ago, we had a landscaping company come out and dig up all the terrible grass that the builder planted (it never grew. It was just weeds.) They put down actual dirt and then sod. Lovely, weed-free sod. And for two years, our lawn was luscious and fairly low maintenance. But gradually, a few weeds started to pop up. My husband was zealous about going around and pulling the stray weeds – and it continued to look lovely with just a little extra work. But somehow, over this past fall and winter, something took root – and we were busy and kept putting off dealing with it. Now our once gorgeous lawn is rife with clover and some kind of trailing, tap-root weed that’s just insidious — pulling one piece doesn’t actually pull the whole thing – you have to follow it around and get every place the taps have planted themselves. Tim doesn’t want to spray the weeds, because the only thing that’ll kill the clover also kills the grass. You really have to get in there and dig out the roots, one painstaking weed at a time.

It isn’t a new thought, but as I was digging out the weeds, I realized that my spiritual walk is a lot like our lawn. When you come to Christ, it’s like that major overhaul of the landscaping company. Everything is fresh and green. But slowly, if you get a little complacent about the weeds, they start to creep in – and there’s really no easy fix. You have to sit down and address each one individually. Whatever sin has crept back in has to be firmly rooted out – and you can’t just leave the uprooted weed laying on the grass. You need to sweep it up and stick it in a bag for the trash people to collect. And you really have to be constantly vigilant – you can’t sit back and expect to coast.

Like with the lawn, though, at the end of the day the time is well spent. Even if you’re stuck with dirt under your fingernails.