The Smallest Little Things

I continue the enormous task of weeding this small garden plot. I discover some teeny-tiny shoots growing in the spots I thought I previously weeded so carefully. Taking my weeding tool, I surround the tiny leaf–only to realize a vast network of thick roots I had overlooked. For this one tiny plant, I simply didn’t weed deep enough or thoroughly.

I think about the task of uprooting sin in our own lives and how the tiniest evidence of sin–attitudes, ways of thinking that seem harmless, things we watch, gossip, etc.–actually represent vast and often deeply rooted networks of unbelief and idolatry. I’ve always been told to examine the “sin beneath the sin” to uproot such things, but when I’m actually gardening, actually digging to see deep and gnarled roots, I can see more clearly the entanglement of sin and the power of images like not having a “root of bitterness” (Hebrews 12:15).

But I also see how I can let good things take root in my heart as I “sow to please the spirit” (Galatians 6:8) and reap a great harvest of joy, peace, and righteousness. I want those roots to go down deep and overtake the entire landscape of my soul.

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