Weed B-Gone

I came upon an interesting site the other day. I thought the county was falling down on its road beautification job because of a weed crawling up a road sign. Then I noticed the weed was coming out from the inside of the sign post.

That's a pretty smart weed. It's basically wearing armor. No weed-whacker I know could cut through a steel sign post. The weed was thriving and getting pretty bold with its tendrils grasping for more leverage.

 

If you look closely you can see it here.

I would imagine after a while it could overtake the sign and people would miss the caution sign.

I talked to my husband about it and wondered aloud how you could rid the sign post of the adventurous weed. He said it would have to be killed at the root.

“But, it would leave a bunch of dead vines and leaves hanging from the post.” I complained.

It would be a tedious job, yanking and cutting. A little like getting bubble gum out of a shag carpet.
If it had just been taken care of when it started to grow in the pole.

Many times God tries to show me something about life in picture puzzles like that.

And I saw it. Sin is like a weed. And if you don’t catch it early or pull it out by the root, time only makes it a bigger problem to eradicate.

It’s easy to overlook sin too. Some days it is pretty obvious, but most of the time it starts with a small misstep: a sharp word planted in someone’s conversation, a seed of gossip…a casual flirtation that becomes habitual…a hidden seed of bigotry left to grow out of sight. And the next thing you know its as obvious as a large weed growing inside a road sign pole.

The words are recorded, habit is entrenched, prejudice brings fists and the seed grows and bears fruit that tastes of death.

Did you forget a weed by the road you’ve walked? Has it grown up tall and green, inside a protective cover of apathy or deception?

You can let it grow and bear that bitter fruit and taint your own caution sign, your testimony. Or, you can get to work with a confession saws all and pull it up by the roots.

As my pastor likes to say, "Do it now!" And I agree.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. James 5:16 (ESV)

I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah  Psalm 32:5 (ESV)