Couch Grass

Been down to the allotment this week.  I have to say it’s amazing how quickly weeds grow!  I had a break from doing it for a couple of years whilst some friends gave growing a go.  It kind of went a bit downhill, and the weeds have returned!

In particular, Couch Grass is annoying me, it’s a bit like golden syrup in the hands of one of my children.... it gets everywhere, and spreads via roots underground, working its way under the surface and then popping up somewhere as a clump of grass.  Even found a potato (very old) with couch grass roots growing through it - they have nice points on them so that the grass can get through almost anything!!!

I reckon it is taking over an hour to dig 2 square metres of soil, getting as many roots out as I can see. It is very tempting when it takes so long to clear to either dig it over, covering up the roots,  or just break the roots up a bit, but leaving them in the soil.....

The problem comes in a few months time, if you just cover the roots up, the couch grass reappears, bursting through the surface alongside all the plants. But chopping them up is an even worse option – each chopped up bit becomes another clump of Couch Grass to get out!

Either way, you’re left with a load of grass growing up alongside the plants you are lovingly looking after! At that stage, even if you carefully try to pull out all the roots without disturbing your plants, little bits of brittle root break off and even more couch grass springs up! One way or another you’re left with Couch Grass above the surface, choking the life out of your lovely plants whilst  under the surface, its roots are taking nutrients away from the plants you are trying to grow.

If you want plants, if you want the fruit, you have to prepare the ground and dig out every last bit of root.

Jesus knows what I mean! He told the story of the ‘wheat and the tares’ and seed sown in ground that wasn’t prepared properly. So it seems to me that God’s refining is a bit like this weeding process. Getting rid of stuff which drains the life out of us, preventing goodness getting in, or breaking strongholds that strangle and constrict us from doing or being who we should be....

If we are going to be fertile and fruitful ground, we can’t just turn over a few new leaves, try harder, change a bit. We’ve got to dig out the roots. To mix metaphors, it requires all out battle not just a bit of dabbling then stepping back from the frontline.

My experience is that there are times when things are going well, we have got most of the weeds out of a patch in our lives..... then we leave it a bit, get on with doing stuff...... forget to do the weeding, fail to dig down far enough to ensure the whole root is gone... and slowly the weeds grow back and if we’re not careful they overrun the whole plot again.

We forget we are in a spiritual battle zone....passivity in the weeding process is not an option....Passivity = losing ground to the enemy, we need to take up forks again and root out what has grown. Of course the enemy will say it’s much too difficult, that the patch will never be clear, that you’re too old, too busy, too young, too anything... to give it the time it needs. But the truth is that the weeds cannot stay in the soil against the power of the fork! Likewise with Gods power at work in us anything the enemy has sown can be uprooted, and the ground transformed.

God’s gardening is not something to be dismissed to later but an ongoing process.....and greater fruit comes as our hearts and minds are prepared. So even though it’s painful sometimes, don’t just cover over the roots, but rather dig them out with God. It is lots of work, but whilst you’re gardening, you can chat with God about stuff, you can listen to the birds, feel the sun, get some exercise and look up and see the smile of your Father as he watches the fruit grow. Just recently we discovered a big weed in the allotment. We started to dig down and tried to pull it up. One of those silent-movie moments where the inevitable happens - the root snaps and the person pulling falls over backwards. We decided then that this was a prophetic root. Absurd as it seemed to other allotment holders - and to some of our friends, we decided this root was coming out. Five hours of work later, including a team of people and the use of specialist tools, not to mention a two foot six deep hole, we finally got the last, smallest piece of the root out.

God is persistent like that if we let him. He doesn't want any root of bitterness in our life, not even the faintest tendril of the enemy left to press on old wounds, to control or poison our life. He wants us free. Of course the digging, the dislodiging might seem uncomfortable. We might think we are free so why is God poking around that area of our life... Truth is, he doesn't want it growing back. He doesn't just want you a little free, he wants you 'free indeed'.

In the end, the weeds and all their roots get thrown on the compost heap and strangely, the very thing that was sent to damage or destroy ends up making the ground more fruitful than it was before.

We are in a battle with the enemy, just like the weeds, he comes to kill, steal and destroy. God on the other hand comes to give life in all its fullness - not just an ok life but a fandabbydozy brilliant life

What are the roots and weeds in your life?