A Lesson From an Invasive Plant…

You will hear your Teacher’s voice behind you. You will hear it whether you turn to the right or the left. It will say, “Here is the path I want you to take. So walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:21, NIRV)

A few years ago, I tried growing a wildflower garden in a rather difficult area of my backyard.  I planted some wildflower seeds from a packet and waited to see what would come up.  There were some flowers, not many and I often couldn’t tell them apart from the weeds that also sprung up until they matured a bit, at which point they got pulled up.

I tried to help by adding some of the seeds of wildflowers I encountered around our city neighborhood.  I figured if these plants managed to grow in odd places without help, maybe they might be hardy enough to thrive in my plot.  So in the Fall, I scattered some seeds.

The next Spring was a surprise.  Black Eyed Susans arrived.  Some Coneflowers popped up too, though I had to protect them against our ravenous neighborhood bunnies who happily devoured them as well as all the pansies I tried to grow. 

Another flower grew from the seeds I had scattered: Queen Anne’s Lace.  I had always admired their lacy flowers and figured that they would be a good addition to my garden.  What a mistake!  I hadn’t realized that in the following years, they would proliferate and end up taking over the entire garden, crowding out everything else I had so carefully planted.  Last Fall, I finally gave up on the garden.  I had it removed entirely and sod installed in that troublesome spot of the yard.  Containers of bunny-safe flowers will have to suffice.  

This Spring, I have spent much time trying to dig up the tiny Queen Anne’s Lace seedlings which have sprung up all over the place.  They’re not easy to get rid of.  The plant is a botanical relative of the carrot, so it’s not enough to pull the green growth; they grow from taproots which need digging up.  Much diligent work must go into ridding my yard and garden of this plant which I myself had invited in.

I think you can see the object lesson.

There might be bad entertainment that we choose to watch or listen to out of habit or just plain laziness.  Or we find ourselves joining in dubious activities so as not to be left out, to be “part of the crowd”, things which later become habitual.  There are patterns of consumption of food or drink or substances or even “doom scrolling” on the phone that seem at first attractive, harmless short-term solutions for our lives.  However, they can end up becoming addictions which destroy our freedom and take over.  There are perhaps even people we know we should not spend  time with but we do it anyway.  You get my point.  The pleasures of sin for a season (Hebrews 11:25) is the way the Bible refers to these things.  They seem good in the beginning.  But they are lesser things, contrary to God’s desire for the best and highest for his beloved children.

The seeds which I ignorantly tossed in my garden thinking I was doing something good brought forth runaway growth and ended up ruining my garden. If I had known beforehand what would happen, I would never have imported them despite how pretty the flowers looked elsewhere. 

In the same way, some of the seemingly small poor choices we make can run amuck in our lives and impact our health, our relationships, our spiritual well-being.  Being prudent and actively mindful of the potential end product of the decisions we make is key.  We need to have our consciences well-formed in God’s truth and we need to heed the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through our consciences so as to know what to avoid and what to do instead.

We ought also to have some kind of vital connection to a community for spiritual feeding, for a measure of accountability, for encouragement and good role models.  After all, God’s plan for the salvation of the world is the communal Church, His Body.  Individuals out there on their own can become more vulnerable to the enemy’s wiles and deception.  Yes, it’s true that our local parish can present us with many challenging people and circumstances in addition to its blessings.  These are all meant in God’s economy to force us to grow up, to mature, to cling more tightly to Him.  After all, weeds don’t need much cultivation; they do fine on their own.  Beautiful flowers need care in order to flourish; they need feeding, watering and weeding. 

The more we practice tuning in to God’s voice and practicing prudence and temperance in our lives with the help of the Spirit, the greater will be our freedom and the stronger our connection with the vital life of Jesus Christ producing good spiritual fruit in us, fruit which brings peace and joy, and shows forth the glory of his divine life.