Weeds

But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you. Judges 2:2-4

A couple of years ago, I discovered that on my property, I had a tremendous crop of Beggar’s Lice, a weed bristling with sticky burs, which velcro themselves to your clothing by the hundreds when you get too close. At first, I never even noticed these weeds until I was covered with the burs, and ended up throwing several ruined articles of clothing away. I grew to absolutely hate those parasites and so, I set out to eradicate them from my property. Over several weeks that summer, I gradually pulled all the Beggar’s Lice I could find, burning them so the seeds couldn’t reproduce the next spring. I pulled weeds by the hundreds, eradicating probably 95% of those demons from my property. I knew I didn’t get them all, but at least I could walk through the brush without ruining a pair of pants. Good enough, right?

I thought I’d done well, but then in midsummer of this year, I started finding myself coated in burs once again. Like the first time, I didn’t notice them until I was covered. Those few plants I allowed to remain, had reproduced and I again found those horrific burs sticking to everything. That which I’d allowed to remain had come back to haunt me.

This is the problem which God confronted in today’s passage. In the story, Israel conquered most of the promised land. Still though, there were remnants of the people who’d occupied it previously. God commanded the Israelites to drive everyone out but several of the tribes stopped when they were mostly done, allowing a fraction of the population to remain. For their incomplete obedience, God foretold that this population would become a thorn in their sides, causing them tremendous misery. God knew that if the Israelites tolerated those who worshipped foreign idols, that they too would eventually begin following those false gods.

This is my challenge now, living in recovery. I may not be using drugs, but I still have self-destructive tendencies, which I find all-too-easy to tolerate – At least I’m not using drugs. My job as a follower of Christ (Luke 9:23) though is to daily pull the weeds out of my life. I may find some evil thoughts, words, or actions to be minor, but when I tolerate them, they grow, metastasizing to other areas of life, eventually causing me pain. So, daily, I must examine my life for those little evil burs that cling to me. Then, I must do whatever it takes to eradicate them. Failing to do so today, will only bring misery tomorrow.