I was running a little ahead of schedule this morning and decided to step out on the front porch to enjoy the sound of the summer rain. It's so peaceful when it rains on our country road.
While I was taking a moment to pause and enjoy nature, something caught my eye. It's something I've seen just about every day for the past couple of years. This time, for the first time, I saw it as an important lesson.
It's a patch of green situated just in front of our woods. It's nowhere near as tall as the trees in back of it, but a lot taller than the well kept lawn that surrounds it.
Basically, it's a patch of really big weeds.
Fallen Trees and Fallen Lives
A couple of years ago a big storm swept through our neighborhood and took down one of our trees. Thankfully, no one was hurt and there was no damage to our home or our cars. And don't get me wrong - I'm glad about that. Really!
But the fact that the tree is far removed from our house gave us a lot less motivation to drag out the chainsaw, cut the tree up and haul it off. It wasn't hurting anything down there by the woods. It was just lying on the ground minding its own business.
So my husband was in no particular hurry to clean up the storm damage. He mowed around the tree all summer. And the next summer. And this summer, too.
No surprise then that the grass and weeds started to grow up around the fallen tree to a point where you can't even see it anymore. It's a great big bulge of natural nasty, and I wouldn't set foot anywhere inside of it because it looks like a great place for snakes!
So now we have a choice to make. We can continue to ignore it and let it remain an open invitation to snakes and an eyesore in our otherwise well kept yard. Or we can wade into that mess and clean it up.
I'd love to get it cleaned up. But it sure would have been a lot easier if we had done it as soon as the tree hit the ground and the weather cleared up.
Do you know where I'm going with this?
Weeds and Snakes of a Different Kind
Being a Christian doesn't guarantee that we'll never fall. We're human, and sometimes we make mistakes. Big ones. Earth shattering ones that change everything.
When we fall like a tree in a storm, we have a couple of choices. We can deal with our mistakes immediately, or we can ignore them. Hide them. Hope that no one sees them. Pretend they're not there. Work around them.
The problem is that the fall still happened, and the damage is still there.
The longer we try to ignore it, the harder it will be to contend with. Weeds will grow up around it. Weeds with names like Regret, Bitterness, Hurt - keeping God and those who love us most from reaching that part of our hearts. That part of our "yard."
Then the snakes move it. Snakes with names like Guilt and Self Condemnation. The poison they inject can be devastating to a believer.
Have you made a mistake? Did you fall?
Take care of the damage ASAP. Make things right. If you hurt someone, ask for forgiveness. Make things right. Repay debts. Most important of all - go to God. The Bible says He is faithful and just to forgive us.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. - Romans 8:1
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. - 1 John 1:9
