Pulling Weeds and Changing Hearts

            Today
we went to a local church to work in their garden.  Well technically, its not yet a church.  It is in the process of being built as
well as the garden being grown.  Liz,
a local missionary, who we have come to love dearly volunteers about 2 hours of
her time every day so the garden will be a place of healing, restoration, a
refuge, and a place of peace.  It
will be a place where people from all over can come to be with the Lord. 

We were asked to help her collect
grass clippings, weed the garden, and spread the clippings in the flower beds to
nourish the soil.  As I was bent
over pulling weeds in the hot Australian sun, God began to speak to me.  He said this is exactly what I am doing
to you.  It was such a
beautiful picture of what the last two months have felt like.  God has been weeding me, my heart, my
life.  Weeds are deceptive.  Some can look pretty, almost like a
flower.  But the truth is, if they
are not pulled they will overtake all the truly beautiful and valuable
flowers.  God is taking the weeds
of my life, the things that would eventually overtake all things beautiful if
not pulled.  He is showing me the
ways I serve myself instead of others. 
He is pulling the fear of rejection, the desire to prove I’m right, and my
insecurities.  He is taking my
harsh words and judgments.  He is
weeding my fear of failure. 

Some weeds are easy to pull and
others are so deep rooted that they need to be dug out.  This process of digging is hard, but
necessary so they don’t grow back. 
It disturbs the soil. The work is hard and you have to spend much more
time on the weeds that are deep rooted. 
Some of the things that God is working on I have dealt with much of my
life.  But this time it will be
different.  The Lord is taking them
by the root so He can plant what He wants in me.  His desire is to replace them with confidence, purpose, joy,
grace, wisdom, freedom, and peace. 
Just as Liz has a vision for the garden, the Lord has a vision for my
life and heart that is more glorious and beautiful than I could ever imagine.

When I am able to fix my eyes on
the end result the process becomes so much more enjoyable.  The gardener is the only one who truly
knows what the end result will look like. 
The joy of the process began
to overtake me that day.  I
realized that this journey is hard and some weeds in my life are difficult to uproot, but I know that it is EXACTLY where I
desire to be. 

At the end of our time in the
garden I looked down at my hands, stained red by the red Australian dirt.  I couldn’t think of a better reminder
of the LOVE God puts into His garden and me..