What Makes a Weed?

I've always loved when the violets start blooming in the spring.  As a child I used to love when I found myself somewhere with enough of them to pick for a little posy. When we built our house some years ago, I was delighted to find that there were many violets in the lawn.  It seems, however, that the violets are flourishing more than the grass is, and our flower beds quickly become overrun with large violet plants when weeding gets overlooked - as it frequently does!

In fact, I pulled pounds and pounds of violet plants recently from around the base of our above-ground pool.    On the one hand, I was sad as I pulled up the roots and rhizomes and saw all the buds the plants were preparing for later. On the other hand, it felt so good to clear out the overwhelming mass of unwanted vegetation.

cleistogamus "flowers"

That bit of weeding got me thinking about how my beloved violets had become such unwanted pests.  I discovered as I was doing a bit of research that what I thought were next season's flower buds were actually this season's cleistogamous [hidden] flowers.  These hidden flowers produce seeds with no other violet plant needed, and the seed pods are sort of "spring-loaded", so they get flung away from the parent plant when they drop.  And that's what makes the little blighters so good at spreading!  

It's that same sort of unexpected ability to reproduce itself that makes some our habits so troublesome.  Reading, for example, is a good thing.  But getting hooked on reading novels, newspapers, magazines, blogs and so forth, day in and day out to the detriment of other responsibilities, IS a big problem.  And the same thing can happen with any and all of the  good things God has given us in this world.  It's not the thing itself that is a problem, but its ability to take root in our lives and overwhelm all the other things in the garden.  

To be an effective disciple of Jesus, one must root out everything that gets in the way of  taking up the cross and following him.  The difficulty is that so many of the things that get in our way are not bad things by their own merit, but only because of their ability to crowd out discipleship.  Violet flowers are, after all, quite charming and lovely.  It is only when they have the chance to take over the garden or the lawn or the flower beds that they become a problem.

"Then [Jesus] said to the crowd, 'If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me.'"  (Luke 9:23)

What weeds are crowding out your discipleship efforts?  What keeps you from prayer, Bible reading, worship, service, giving?  Weeds can be hard to identify and heart-breaking to dig out when they seem as harmless as a little violet flower.  Ruthlessly "weeding" our lives is the only thing, though, that will allow us space to develop fully into disciples of Jesus Christ.  So get out your gardening gloves, and start pulling!