Apart from being a Mumford & Sons song, this was my day at The Land. There are currently 2 teams of World Racers (12 girls) here right now so they go to The Land with us as well. One of the girls, Nadia, and I were given the job of pulling tangle weed out of the hedge.
Working on the hedge has been my job several times; our host even calls me the ‘hedge expert.’ But I haven’t yet dealt with the tangle weed…or what we have affectionately dubbed “Satan’s weed.”
As we began pulling out the tangle weed, we saw how much it choked the beautiful flowers and leaves. This tangle weed was intertwined around every bit of the plant. We had to carefully pull, tug, cut and break off all the pieces of tangle weed. And we noticed that in some places it was so tangled, we had to pull off the pretty flowers and leaves.
Nadia mentioned how it got her thinking of the parable of the sower. And that got us started on how this plant related to the sin in our lives.
Back story: I trimmed and tended to this same spot on the hedge about a month ago. But because no one kept it up, it got way out of hand.
Thinking about that, I realized how we hold onto things – hold onto sin – in our lives. See, if this hedge had been successfully kept up with in the last month, it wouldn’t have been so choked by this tangle weed.
And when we don’t take things to the Lord in our life, we let things eat us up, choke us, and take over our lives. And since this hedge was not properly taken care of, when pulling out the tangle weed, we had to pull off flowers and healthy vines. We even had to cut off a whole branch taller than me because the weeds had completely taken over. It was so sad, but so often like our lives.
We hold onto things and then when we reach our breaking point and finally allow God to come in and shape us and mold us, he has to rip away at things. Sometimes, even the good things.
I encourage all of you to examine your hearts and allow God to radiate into your life. Allow Him to tug away at the things that are holding you back.
Yes, it will hurt.
Yes, he may even take away things that are good.
But, just like the flowery hedge, you will be so beautiful in the end.
