I Want to Be Like a Weed

Little did I know the blessings in disguise when it came to taking care of those pesky weeds in my riding arena!

God can speak to us in our daily lives no matter what we are doing. Here are some of the spiritual lessons I learned from trying to keep the weeds out of my riding arena.

First a little background. Last year I let the weeds get ahead of me and before I knew it there were weeds up to my knees in my riding arena. It was a dry year and their roots went deep. So it was no easy task removing them by the roots. I didn't want that to happen again.

This year I decided to stay ahead of them. So after a couple late May rains, I was out there every morning hoeing the tiny sprouts. I thought, "There I got it. They are all gone!" But no sooner did I think I had them all, more were popping up.

Every early morning after letting my horses out to pasture I waged war against these pesky weeds. It has been a month now, and every day just when I think I have them under control there are more than I imagined there would be sprouting again and again. Will it ever end?

Instead of getting discouraged, or mad at the weeds, I decided to ask God to teach me some lessons. Here is what I discovered.

Neglect doesn’t make the ‘weeds’ go away.

Last year I had been too busy to pay attention to the weeds. I had allowed the weeds to grow out of control. The longer I waited to take care of the weeds, the more time they had to spread. In fact, it was quite overwhelming to look at what had become because of my neglect.

The same neglect can happen in our own life. When we are willing to turn a blind eye to the issues that need to be taken care of, we often feel overwhelmed and defeated before we start to deal with the weeds because they seem to be ‘out of control.’

We may not know where to start or how to deal with our problem, but, thankfully, we have a God who is always in control and is with us even when we are covered in ‘weeds.’

Remember God is with you, regardless of something that you should have taken care of weeks ago or even years ago. Ask the Lord for strategies on how to pull up the weeds around the areas that you know He wants you to develop.

As you start to address those weeds, He’ll be there with you each step of the way, one weed at a time to remove them from your life. It may be painful, just like the tall deep rooted weeds in my arena took some back breaking work to get rid of.

The bigger the weed, the bigger the problem

When I started taking care of the tall weeds last year, it was more difficult than I imagined. While I could get a good grip on the weed, there were many instances that I could not pull the giant weed out by my own strength. I had to use a shovel and constantly dig around the base of the weed until I loosened the weed’s grip on the dirt, causing it to come up easier.

There are some things in life that we’ve gone through that we cannot ‘self-will’ to fix. There are issues that we’ve tried and tried in our own power to resolve, but have still failed. That’s where we need something greater and stronger than ourselves – That is the person and power of the Holy Spirit.

Weeds are relentless.

They keep popping up even when you least expect it. That is why it is a daily battle. We can't let up on them.

We are instructed in scripture to renew our minds daily. It is the consistency of weeding out the lies and negative thoughts and replacing them with truth of God's word that will keep the weeds in the arena of your mind under control.

And my last lesson is I WANT TO BE LIKE A WEED! You may be thinking... are you crazy? Nope.

Weeds can grow in the most unlikely places in the harshest conditions. All they need is a very small crack of light, a tiny bit of soil, and the least amount of moisture.

I mean it doesn't seem like those weeds should be growing in my arena... it is sandy (not good soil from growing)... it is dry-dry-dry (not a drop of water)... and the horses are constantly stomping them down.

The conditions seem less than perfect, and yet every day more and more seeds are trying to grow, and if I don't kill them... they will produce a crop. They are so hardy and steadfast. They are determined to do what they were meant to do.

Like a weed, by the grace of God I will grow in his likeness, no matter how harsh the conditions are. He will complete the work in me that he has begun.

Like a weed I will keep planting seeds over and over until some of them take root. I will not give up sharing the gospel even when it looks like many of those seeds are being plucked out of the ground by birds, or have fallen on hard/rocky ground, or are being choked out by the cares of this world. Sooner or later some of those seeds will survive and grow even in the worst conditions.

Like a weed I will keep looking for the tiniest crack, reaching for the light of the Son, who will ensure that I will not only survive but thrive.

Like a weed I will dig my roots deep in the water of the word that will enrich my soul and cause my life to shoot up with ever lasting joy and peace.

Like a weed I will stand strong knowing that even if I am cut down, I will come back again with greater glory.

Like a weed I will keep producing a crop year after year until the Lord returns. Weeds grow everywhere. And everywhere I go I will be a part of the harvest of souls. For the time is near.

So be a weed that keeps on going with the Lord, no matter what the world throws at you. Let's start sprouting up everywhere in the world with the power of the Holy Spirit so that His love is spread on the hearts of everyone around us.