ROOTED

Well....this weed had a deep “foundation”--and I'm glad the soil was moist enough that I could “liberate it” from further growth without leaving the root in the soil to propagate again. I'm sure you've seen—as I have—homes in the community where weeds have taken over. I pass by one nearly every week, the once-trim lawn now thigh-high in weeds. I know that house, in and out. Back in my single days (the early 1970s) I rented a bedroom there for a winter. At that time it had orange shag rug, and my roommates had a dog who thought that rug was a dandy location for its, uh, “bathroom duties.” But, I digress...

Driving past it now—overwhelmed by weeds and more—I remember our  “renter duties” of mowing and weeding. We kept it 'lookin' good." Now when I see an unkempt house, I think of several reasons “why.” Sometimes it's in an estate situation—the owner deceased, the inheritance knotted up in probate issues. Or it may be owner-occupied, and that owner unwell or just doesn't care. Or, third choice, a rental, with an absentee owner who, well, just doesn't care as long as the occupants pay the rent.

Bear with me for the analogy, but I wonder if our Lord looks over His world and finds hearts that are spiritually unkempt, full of the weeds of bad habits, sloth, anger, or indifference. I remember this principle: “For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). If the body-and-mind-house (our flesh-blood-thinking “selves”) doesn't have Jesus in residence and in control, it often shows in what we present outwardly to the world through our demeanor and words.

That seems to be a common theme in letters that the apostle Paul wrote to fledgling churches. Besides the one at Corinth (mentioned above which had its share of worldly “habits” to change) there were believers at Colossae (in modern-day Turkey), who got this Pauline reminder: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6-7).

In other words, the inner character that is revealed in our “outward lives”--as the soil yields either a mess of weeds or a groomed, cared-for lawn—is what the world sees. It's also how the world regards the difference that a faith “rooted” in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior can make in our inside/outside "person."

Come to think about, one alternative to a cared-for lawn is one overwhelmed by crab grass. And it's hard to be “overflowing with thankfulness” if you've got weeds of crabby discontent in your life. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go out and dig some weeds out of my real lawn.