About the author : Antwuan Malone
Antwuan Malone is a Ministry Director at ELEVATE Young Adult Ministry (elevateministry.net) where empowers young adults toward Christian leadership. He is passionate about seeing young adults take their place in church history by drawing near enough to God to hear his call on their life, and courageously living in obedience to that call.
weed theology…
funny thing about weeds is, they are persistent.
as I strolled out to our backyard yard yesterday, to fire up some steaks we’d gotten on sale at Kroger, i was greeted by the warm smiles of the weeds. well, I suppose they don’t really smile, but I’m going to try to write as positively as I can about those things. after all, they too are God’s creatures, right?
as I threw the steaks on the grill, I got to wondering why it was that weeds didn’t need my permission to grow in my yard. in the sense that, I didn’t have to lay down “weed seed” or have to make sure they got the right amount of water or sun exposure. the weeds just grow, wanted or unwanted. planted or not planted. and, if I’m not careful, all the grass growth will become frustrated by the aggressive, persistent agenda of the weeds to dominate the yard.
it’s interesting that, even in nature, the ugly and “evil” come about naturally, and it serves as a reminder of how likely we are to be weed-like in our own lives. that it doesn’t matter that last summer was full of green grass. in the spring, weeds will pop up, and unless we deal with them, they’ll take over the yard.
the grass versus the weeds. a natural battle of good versus evil, occurring in my backyard. i got to thinking about how life tends to have a fair amount of weeds popping up here and there. and we don’t need to do much for them to appear. in fact, that’s exactly how they appear… because we aren’t doing much. i think about God and the world. about society. our families. and it makes perfect sense that the default growth from the soil that is our lives, produces weeds. that sin gets, as the Word says, “exceedingly sinful.”
i think about how we don’t have to teach our children how to lie, cheat and steal. how we don’t have to train them to be elitist, or to talk badly about other people, or how to be selfish. we have to teach to be honest, and to see everyone with equal value. we have to train them to share, and to love selflessly. because if we don’t, dishonesty, elitism and selfishness will dominate their lives.
Iit’s not hard to make the spiritual comparison. satan is as persistent as those weeds are. he does not relent. he does not give in. he’s still coming. there is not time to relax and do nothing. we should always be tending to your life, prepping it for whatever God would have us do with it.
the good news is, we serve a master gardener. Psalms 23 says, “… he makes me lie down in green pastures.” i get the feeling that pasture is weeds-free. the devil and the weeds he plants and sprouts in our life is persistent, but he is no match for Gardener. if you’ve looked up recently and found life full of weeds, be encouraged! with a little pruning, and a little sunshine, God is ready to help make your pastures green again.
Share some of the weeds in your life at the moment? Or, share ways God’s made your pastures green.
