Several years ago, we had a plan to tear the grass out along the side of our house to put in a flower bed and a trash can hide so that we could get our big trash cans out of our garage. This would clear up space to actually have two cars in the garage or more storage for bikes for a family of seven. We had several projects going on and this was one of the smaller ones and it just kept falling to the bottom of the list. We kept saying, oh, we’ll get to it.

Well, the last few years have been packed with things that fill up our schedule and it just wasn’t getting done. I soon realized that it would be me and the kids doing the beginning work to get this prepared and ready without my husband. My husband and I have done so many projects together that we make a really good team. It would be weird starting a project without him.

As I thought about beginning this task, I was not excited, but I was excited. I was excited to bring change and beauty to the area, but I was not excited for the grueling work that would be required to make it happen.

The kids and I started tearing up the perfectly green healthy grass in that area, shaking the dirt of the roots and preparing the ground for flowers and shrubs. It was back breaking work. In my excitement to get started, I bought some plants so that we would have an incentive to work towards getting the ground ready.

I was not prepared for how long the work would take and the extra hot days that came out of nowhere once we started this project. A hard job had become much harder. As we toiled in the hot weather. We sweated, we got blisters, our bodies were pushed to limits never hit before, and we were exhausted.

The plants started to become stressed because they were in their pots and it was so hot that watering them daily wasn’t really enough. Eventually, we finished taking up the grass, we planted those original plants (thankfully they survived), bought more plants, and that area became a beautiful garden.

The only thing missing was the concrete pad, which we intended to pour ourselves, and the trash can hide that we would build after. Well, things got busy again and it wasn’t until a year later when we were weeding the area that would eventually become the trash can hide, that I decided we needed to get this project done. I did not want to pull weeds from this area anymore. I had worked very hard to get the grass out and the weeds immediately found their way in to the exposed dirt to take root. I would end up weeding this area frequently over the last year.

Last week, I determined that this would be the very last time I weeded this area. As I sat down and began to weed that ridiculously overgrown area, I was listening to my favorite Christian playlist which had me thinking about Jesus Christ. I began to notice how the crabgrass and some other weeds had spread their tendrils out which would then allow the weed to take root over larger areas.

While the overall area I was weeding seemed to be thick with several weeds, upon closer examination, I noticed that one thicket of crabgrass actually took over a large area because of the tendrils spreading and rooting and then spreading again. The weeds were spreading faster than my healthy plants were growing and I could see the danger of this scenario. Can you see what I saw?

From this point on in my weed pulling, I began to look for the tendrils and gently tug the roots out of the ground and gather all of the tendrils together and tug at the heart of the weed’s original roots. As I started this new technique, I thought of all the ways weeding this area was like clearing out the distractions from my own life. Some of the things we indulge ourselves in can take root in several areas of our lives and if we aren’t careful, there isn’t room for the good things to be nourished.

Just like the weeds can overgrow and choke out the healthy plants because they steal the water and nutrients from the ground and the sunlight that the other plants need to flourish. Distractions of the world can take up our entire day and we are left with no energy or interest in doing the healthy necessary things in life. The healthy plants become stagnant in their growth and become stressed due to the weeds taking over. Just like our spiritual progress becomes stunted and we can suffer loss of the spiritual connection we so desperately need.

I don’t know about you, but I feel this analogy deeply in my soul. I thought of many times in my life when this analogy was true to my life circumstances. In these times, the light felt so far away. These are not happy times for me to reflect upon.

But once I eliminated the things that were choking out the Living Water, the Bread of Life, and the Light of Christ, I could begin to thrive. Little by little, weed by weed, I let go of the things of the world and I allowed Him to enter more fully into my life. I included Him as much as possible. Over the years, as stress and trials wilted my leaves, I learned to trust and wait. After some pruning by the Lord, I became strong and I was able to flourish once more.

This seems to be the pattern for my life. There will be times of flourishing and thriving and there will be times of stress and wilting. As I was weeding, I was thinking about how I did not want to weed this area again. And then I realized, that the only way that would happen is if we poured the concrete very soon after I cleared the weeds out of the area.

The connection came to me immediately. When we clear the things of the world out of our lives and we build the foundation of our lives on Jesus Christ, it is always harder for the weeds to thrive. Weeds will pop up here and there, but it won’t take as much effort to be rid of them.

What does this look like to build a life on the foundation of Jesus Christ? Is it to late to begin?

It is NEVER too late to begin! I promise you this. I have done it, I have seen it, and I have come to realize that we will never finish progressing.

I will write more in my next post about building a life on the foundation of Jesus Christ but until then, I would love to hear any ideas you have about this. Leave a comment for me.

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