Entangled
I wouldn’t call myself a gardener. In fact I’m horrible at keeping green things alive, except maybe my aloe plant. One day when I was tending to my hydrangeas, the only other plant I have managed to keep alive, my neighbor, who is uber talented with all things green, came over and pointed out a weed in my flower bush. To me it looked like a nice green stalk of something, never thinking it was a weed. She warned me to pull it out or it would soon overtake my hydrangeas. Oh how deceptive a weed can be! Especially if we don’t have a trained eye to see.
About a month ago God gave me a vision.
A beautiful, green garden of flowers was entangled with a deceptive weed. One that looked green and normal. If you were to look at it you would not be able to tell which was the good stems and which ones were the bad stems. The gardener wanted to get rid of the weed but wasn’t sure which ones to take out because the two had become so entangled. Instead of painstakingly going through each one, the gardener decided to rip out the whole garden and start over.
As I have walked my journey, I have accumulated good and not so good things in my life. A lot of time I am not even aware of the weeds that begin to entangle my heart, my attention, my soul.
They become so intertwined that I begin to accept what is instead of what should be... or even what could be.
I can no longer see the weeds in my life. And if I do see them, I question whether they are weeds or just a part of the plant.
Fear.
Doubt.
Insecurity.
Idols.
Sin.
Lies.
Unhealed wounds.
What entangles your heart? Your growth? Your recovery? Your life?
“…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” Hebrews 12:1
As God began to slowly open my eyes to the weeds in my heart, mind and soul, I began to realize that I did not have the power within me to painstakingly weed out the garden of my life. In order to do that I had to give God the shovel.
I had to let go.
Of everything. The good, the bad and the ugly.
I handed Him the shovel and said take it all.
And I surrendered.
Lord, have your way with me. I am an open slate. Mold me into the creation that I was meant to be before the weeds overtook me and entangled me. May the new growth bare fruit in abundance. Fruit that is everlasting.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 5:15
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