Lessons From the Long Root

I spent many hours outside last summer as I struggled to keep our flowers, bushes, and vegetables alive in our severe heat and drought. With no sprinkler system, I would spend lots of time standing and spraying our plants with water - or propping the hose up while I busied myself with something else and then would hurry back in order to rearrange the hose once more. During these times of watering was when I noticed the little weed in the flower bed that surrounds the light pole in our front yard. This small area was where I usually began my morning watering. I would prop the hose up just so and then I would take that time to pull more of the hose out of the hose box, get the pruning shears out of the cabinet in the garage, or put on my garden shoes before moving the hose to another flower bed.


I saw the little weed and thought that I really should pull it, but then would forget about it as I began to take care of other matters. It was nestled along the edge of my pretty yellow Coreopsis and wasn't very noticeable. Its leaves even blended in with the Coreopsis leaves and so it wasn't offensive or annoying. Day after day went by. Some days I didn't even think about the little intruding weed. On other days, when it would once again grab my attention, I was usually busy with something else. I told myself that I would pull it later, or that tomorrow I would get to it. Besides, it wasn't doing any harm there. It actually added some nice green color to our flower beds that were becoming increasingly brown in the oppressive heat. There was always an excuse for not pulling the seemingly harmless weed.


One hot day as I worked among my flowers, I looked down and saw that this little weed had grown significantly. Still, it wasn't huge but it sure was larger than I had noticed before. Silly me, I thought. Why have I been waiting to pull this once-little weed? I just need to get rid of it now, I reasoned. I reached down and gave the weed a pull.........and nothing happened. I pulled a bit harder, and still the weed didn't budge. I gripped harder on the small growth, gave a firmer yank, and still it sat firm in its place in the dirt. This small, harmless weed was certainly being stubborn! It wasn't letting go of its foothold very easily at all! I was so deceived by the small growth that I could see, that I was in turn shocked by its apparently deep growth in the soil. I once again got a firmer hold, jiggled the weed back and forth, pulled with all my might..............and finally out came the root. What a surprise! The root was very long - much longer in proportion to the rest of the plant. While I had procrastinated about getting rid of the little weed or argued with myself about how harmless the little weed was, this little weed was growing a deep root system that could have damaged or killed my pretty Coreopsis. There was no excuse for my neglect - a wise gardener knows better.

I get very busy in my everyday life. Much of what I do is valuable and important. No matter the season of life I am in, my days seem to stay full and active. I may prop one hose up here while I'm running around over there taking care of other matters. How easy it is for some sin to begin taking root in my life, but I'm too busy to hardly notice. Or maybe I notice an attitude or a thought or an action, but I disregard it as being small and insignificant. When I recognize it again, I say that I'll handle it later. I have so much of importance to accomplish today. Soon my little sin is taking root in my heart. It's becoming such a part of me that I don't feel nearly as bothered by it as I used to. On the outside my sin looks small and shallow, but inside there is a long root. And when the day comes that I am convicted or that my sin begins to affect me or others, and I want to uproot it - I may have a harder time doing that than I ever expected. God, my Master Gardener, will uproot my sin if I let Him............but the damage in my life and heart may be there to stay. How much better it would have been if I had paid attention to the warning signs.......if I had noticed the growth of that sin in my heart..........and had uprooted it at the beginning.


God warned Israel in Deuteronomy 29 to not associate with the heathen tribes that lived all around them - to not adopt their wicked ways or worship their false gods. In verse 18 God warned Israel: "...so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit or wormwood." What pointed and practical advice this is for me today! Wherever I am in life, I know that I need to carefully nurture the good and the spiritual.............and weed out the wrong and the ungodly from my heart. To weed it out quickly before it grows a long root! Give me wisdom and discipline, Lord, to keep the unwanted weeds from rooting in my life.