I spent the first three hours of my morning weeding the beds in front of my home. That should probably be embarrassing - that it took three hours (and I'm still not finished) - but it's been that kind of spring and summer. With another ceu event taking me away from home for a week, I was afraid of what I would find when I got home if I didn't do something now. So, I headed straight for the jungle, er, I mean flower bed.

I wasn't there long before I discovered some very sinister things happening at ground level. There's basically one weed to blame for the whole jungle - a weed that, from a fairly small (and rather innocent-looking) sprout sends runners in every direction imaginable. And, those runners cling to soil, other plants, brick, whatever it can get its little suckers on as they "run." My fingers were raw in no time flat, tracing runners and making sure that root and all was gone from every little place this thing had traveled.

Pause for a moment. I heard once that people who work with money and are trained to detect counterfeits (without the handy-dandy little pen) never focus on what the fake might be like. They know and real stuff so well that when the "feel" is off or the color isn't quiet right or some other detail is even a hair different, they know. They focus on the real stuff and that truth makes it easier to detect the lie. All that to say this: in my teaching and preaching, I don't focus much on sin. Not that I don't believe it's real, sinister, and deadly. I figure that knowing the Truth so well, recognizing God's grace and love in the most surprising places/ways will illuminate the cavities in our souls and lives.

All that said, my encounter with the weeds this morning was all about sin. I couldn't get it out of my mind as I worked hard to find all the suckers and dig out all the roots. One thing - a thought, an action, an attitude, a secret, you know - can look like such an innocent sprout. But, the next thing you know, runners are headed in a million different directions and sticking to everything they can get to. The next thing you know, that one innocent- enough lie (betrayal, poor choice, insensitivity, you name it) is making its presence known in most every other thought, choice, action, and attitude.

I couldn't take it any more ... that's why I weeded that bed today. My prayer is that I can learn to tend to the bed of my soul before the jungle sprouts ... from that one cranky, mean weed. I want, need the courage to see the weedy little choices and words and actions for what they are. And, more courage still to let 'em be ripped out by the roots. There is such beauty and harmony and health in that bed - and in my spirit - when it's cared for like it should be.

Happy gardening to you, too!