Unwanted Grass

Wednesday 4/1/20 8:07 AM

Last week I dethatched my lawn. The power rake I used left about a six-inch wide swath of grass around the outer edge of my lawn that was not touched. I’ve spent the last few days going around that edge with a hand rake, removing the thatch, and taking out weeds and the unwanted rye and fescue grasses. The grasses and weeds that I want to remove are intertwined with the Bermuda grass so some of that is also removed in the process. The Bermuda has runners under the top layer of soil so it will return while the rye and fescue only reproduce using seeds. The lawn has been taken down to the dirt and last night I watered the lawn to settle the dust. Small patches of green Bermuda are poking their shoots through the soil and it won’t be too long and the whole lawn will be back, minus the weeds and unwanted grasses.

My life is a bit like the lawn. Over time there are bad habits or sins that creep in like weeds. Sometimes good habits can also arise, but with time they take over like the unwanted rye and fescue, and the important things of life get crowded out. My life, like my lawn, is a mixture of good and bad all mixed together.

The current pandemic has given me time to reassess what is important and what is unnecessary or unwanted. I am taking this opportunity to get rid of the weeds, rye, and fescue, of my life and make room for the Bermuda to thrive. There is a sense in which I feel that God is using the pandemic to force us as a society to reboot, to reassess what is important. I have the feeling our world has been stripped of all the glitz and glamour and we are forced to look at the bare dirt of our lives. I pray that the Bermuda runners in people’s lives, the important things, will surface so their lives can once again thrive in the way we were designed to thrive.