200th post....

I was doing a little gardening earlier this week. And let me say "a little" again, because it is not really my thing and I know absolutely nothing about it. I don't have one and was simply learning as I went. I can't even get my hanging baskets from Lowes to live....so gardening...Wow...a stretch for me.
But I was thinking a lot about the whole process; from tilling the ground and preparing it for the seed to having to weed it and tend it regularly so that it will produce what you want it to. But the thing that really got me was the grass....trying to keep the grass out. Tilling it up and removing what was once planted so that you could reproduce what you want. And then having to totally remove the remnants of the grass so it doesn't grow back. It was a lot of work just getting ready to plant, to produce what you wanted. And a big part of that was not just tilling up the ground, but removing from it the things that you no longer want there or else it will return and overtake what you are trying to produce.
For many of us, we are just like this garden. We have good intentions of producing good fruit. We even toil the ground and plant the seeds. But most of us do not take the time to remove the grass-we leave a clump or two here and there and think nothing of it. I am not even talking weeds. I am talking grass. Things that normally would be no big deal, but when you are trying to bear fruit for the Kingdom are a natural deterent. Tearing up what can not exist in order to get what you want. And for many of us it isn't about removing sin alone, but about removing those things that might creep in and destroy your crop, your fruit. Those things that would rob us and steal from us the produce of our labor...or later make reaping that harvest even more difficult to find because it would be overtaken with "grass". It is our outbursts of anger, selfishness, pride and frustration, but it is also our TV watching, movies and laziness. It is our lack of sacrifice, insufficient time in the Word and a casual prayer life. It is not putting others before ourselves. These things and so much more can cause whatever had been planted to be choked out, overgrown and keep good fruit from being produced.
We often start with great ambitions, but fall short because we don't remove the remnants....and it creeps back. We don't pull it up, carry it away and cast it aside. And it affects our produce.
There is a lot of work involved in simply getting the fallow ground ready for what it is going to receive so that it can reproduce. We all like the produce, but few of us like the work. I think it is time to get dirty....and to start dealing with the roots that keep creeping back into the garden, because it is affecting the produce. ALL FOR YOU