“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles (Hebrews 12:1).
On a trip south to visit our daughter, we were driving along a Carolina highway when we began seeing creeping vines with large leaves, climbing the trees along the roadside. The farther we drove, the more vines we saw, until its rampant growth seemed to have swept over everything in its path, like wild green waves. The vine, (probably kudzu), thickly blanketed whole fields, mummifying the landscape. Trees and bushes had become merely rounded shapes, like fish caught in a net of green. Gone were the individual colors and textures of oak or evergreen. Instead, a graveyard of green monsters stood silently submerged, surrendered to the verdant vine. How could they breathe? Would they die?
It reminded me of distractions in our lives that seem harmless enough at first, not necessarily bad in themselves. But slowly they grow, stealing away more and more time that could be better used elsewhere. As the saying goes, “The good is the enemy of the best.”
Psalm 119:36-37 is a great prayer: “Turn my heart toward Your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things. Preserve my life according to Your word.” We have only a limited time on earth before we are called to give an account of our days. Let’s clip those distractions before they choke the life out of our calling and turn us into spiritual mummies. Let’s thrive and grow into all that we are created to be!
Small weeds are easiest to pull.