A Last Days Garden

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires." - 1 Timothy 3:1-6

"...having a form of godliness but denying it's power..." I mutter to myself as I am on my hands and knees in the wet dirt of my berry patch. I have an assortment of blueberry plants and strawberry plants, but more so I have an extensive collection of weeds.

My gardening throughout history entailed mostly just ripping off the leaves and stems and leaving the root because that was the easy thing to do. However, God spoke to me and told me that this practice left my garden looking lovely for a few days...maybe a week...but under the surface, the weed was still alive and in the process of re-emerging. "This is sin," He said. I knew what He meant. He didn't mean that it was a sin to improperly weed my garden, He meant that it was a picture of how to inappropriately deal with sin.

My husband coined a term in the recent past called "sin management". This means to deal with sin on the surface so that you'll look supremely righteous, but to leave it alive and vibrant under the surface and waiting for the right time to manifest again. This is how I've gardened. This is how I've dealt with weeds. If I'm to be an effective gardener, I MUST pull the whole weed out, including the root, or else it'll just keep coming back.

My garden has often had "the form of being appropriately weeded" but has lacked the "power" it could have if it truly was free of the weeds that were robbing it's nutrients. The weeds seek to overtake the garden through what we perceive to be maliciousness ("they are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women... or weak-willed berry plants?).

"Having the form of godliness..." I mutter again to myself as I force myself to to weed the effective way. I know that this is not the last battle. Even if I pull out every weed the right way, more will come as the wind carries the seeds. In our world, we can rid ourselves of every known sin, but it doesn't change the fact that we live in a corrupt world and sin is literally carried on a breeze. It's rather unavoidable as far as encountering it is concerned. However, we are not called to be in a bubble, but to weed our own garden and re-examine our own hearts daily to keep our berry patches healthy and fruitful.

I want to walk in the full power of Christ. I want to bear all the fruit He can hang on my branches, and I also want that fruit to be sweet and nourishing. In these last days, full of weeds and malicious deeds, I long for my garden to stand out and be useful and effective. Lord Jesus! I also want to help others weed their gardens. Let us have FULL GODLINESS! FULL POWER! FREE FROM SIN!

Let us be lovers of others, lovers of Christ, meek, humble, kind, obedient, grateful, holy, loving, forgiving, encouraging, self-controlled, restoring, lovers of good, trust-worthy, wise, unconceited, lovers of the things of God...Amen.