Weeding
Today I have been doing something rather unusual for me – gardening. We have a very prolific weed in our garden. It doesn’t respond to weed killer. The roots travel along unseen underground and pop up in unexpected places. They criss-cross over each other and get tangled in other plants making it hard to separate and pull up. I have to get down on my hands and knees and dig up the individual roots carefully following them back as far as possible to where they come from and pull out as much as possible.
On my own I can’t get rid of this weed, but I can help to limit its spread, to stop it invading other parts of the garden and so allow other plants to flourish. As I was doing this, the similarities between this weed and our current situation struck me. It also reminded me of our Lent course where we have been learning about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
The course has broken down discipleship into 3 areas – head, heart and hands and asked us to consider how we think we were doing in each of these areas. For me, I felt the hands section needed most work. My fear of getting things wrong, getting in the way or making a fool of myself often puts me off doing anything at all. For others, maybe it is the head section, challenging how much time we spend exploring our faith though private bible readings or discussing it with others. Or maybe it is the heart and how strong our relationship is with God and others. This strange situation we currently find ourselves in is providing us with all sorts of opportunities to challenge ourselves in all these areas. We can put our faith into action by helping those around us. If we are stuck at home unable to work or go out, we can use this as an unexpected opportunity to study and pray and join in the worship that Colin, John and Liz are working so hard to provide for us and so deepen our relationship with God.
The course notes say that ‘personal discipleship is about moving closer to what Jesus wants for us in every area of our lives.’
Let’s not waste this opportunity to do just that.
