“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell … among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.” (Matthew 13:3 & 7)

There’s a picture that I pushed out to social media last week that has gotten a lot of chuckles. Perhaps you’ve seen it; it’s my vegetable garden completely, and I mean completely, overrun with weeds.

I knew that I should have been a little more attentive to weeding before we went on vacation. But in the crush of family and ministry obligations, it was one of those things that just fell off the plate as we prepared for our epic two week vacation. In 30 years of ministry the Benedicts had never taken a two week vacation, so my focus was elsewhere as we looked forward to this trip that would take us to family and friends at both Atlantic Beach, North Carolina and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

While we were gone, I had asked the neighbors to pick any veggies they could, but I certainly didn’t expect the 6+ inches of rain that fell while we were gone. What an unusual July!

Well, that rain just exploded the weeds, like gasoline on a campfire, and by the time we returned home, things were completely out of control.That next Monday I waded into the garden and began to pull weeds… wheel barrows and wheel barrows full of weeds. As I went, I also harvested green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and summer squash; and you know what I found? The weeds had greatly hindered the healthy growth of the vegetables. The weeds were crowding out the garden plants, sucking up the nutrients and blocking the sunlight. I received a harvest, but probably ½ of what I would have received had the garden been well tended.

Spiritually, the same is true. If we allow the cares, temptations and distractions of this world to draw our attention away from our Loving Father, our identity in Christ and our dependence on the Holy Spirit, we will fill our spiritual garden with weeds and our spiritual harvest will suffer. When Jesus’ disciples asked what Jesus the story of the seed meant he said, “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22).

So how is the garden of your life? If we are overgrown with the weeds of this world, the best thing we can do is to repent and allow God to pull the weeds that are holding us back so we can bring forth a righteous harvest- 30, 60 or even 100x as much as was originally sown.

Happy weeding!