"The Spiritual Weed Whacker" - Crosswalk the Devotional - Sept. 22, 2011

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The Spiritual Weed Whacker
Ryan Duncan, The Fish.com Editor

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”- Matthew 6:34

Have you ever heard of the Kudzu vine? For all you botany fans out there, the Kudzu vine is a climbing, coiling plant that’s earned a pretty dubious reputation In the United States. The Kudzu, you see, is an invasive species that’s very, very hard to kill. It can resist pesticides, survive without soil for long stretches of time, and has tiny nodes that it uses to climb even difficult surfaces. A small portion of the Kudzu can latch onto a tree and continue to grow until it literally strangles the host plant and steals all its nutrients.

Like most invasive species, the Kudzu has no natural enemies, which allows it to grow relatively unhindered. This is particularly bad because the Kudzu vine is one of the fastest growing plants in the world, sometimes averaging feet a day. In fact, the Kudzu has devoured so many forests in the southern United States that it’s been given the nickname “The Vine That Ate the South”.  It is, in short, one gigantic super-weed.

So, I bet you’re asking “why the biology lesson?” In Matthew 13 Jesus tells his disciples the Parable of the Sower, and uses the image of weeds to explain how daily life can interrupt our faith.   

“The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” – Matthew 13:22

As a kid, I helped my parents with the gardening, and I learned two things about weeds. First, weeds always start out small, but if ignored they grow into something huge and hard to uproot. Secondly, weeds will always grow back. The same could be said about life.

If we let daily problems overwhelm us, our faith will wither and die, or if we allow ourselves to get too comfortable in our faith, we’ll end up stunting our growth. Let Christ be your spiritual weed killer. Whether it’s through Church, small group, or even a morning devotional, give God the opportunity to pull away life’s distractions and teach you more about who he is.

The seeds are ready. What will your harvest look like?

Intersecting Faith and Life

How often do you take time to study Gods word? Does your schedule need improvement?

Further Reading

Psalm 55:22