My Overwhelming Junk Yard . . . I Need a Revolution! Stuck in Rochester and Loving It, Part 4
My yard is huge, 1.5 acres to be exact.
When I first moved here, I had big plans: A bed of tulips over here, Daffodils
over there, and a myriad of exotic trees scattered throughout the property,
especially weeping willows, my personal favorite!
I also wanted a garden, and I eyed a certain weed-covered portion of land with
this in mind. In fact, the day after our move, I went out to inspect this
particular plot. It had obviously been used as a garden before, but not for a
while. The weeds growing there were not the typical kind at all. They were over
six feet tall!
What do you do with weeds? Why you pull them up, of course! And I proceeded to
do just that. Before I had succeeded in unearthing even one of them however, I
was out of breath and I had hurt my back. You should have seen the root system
on these monsters!
I eventually succeeded in uprooting all of those giant-weeds, and what was
left was a patch of bare ground. It would be the ideal garden spot, and when
spring rolled around, I eagerly planted my vegetables.
It didn't take long for my dream to turn into a nightmare. My neighbors had
dedicated the back of their property to what they called "natural growth".
Translated, this meant "weed patch", and it seemed that this particular patch of
weeds felt that its callings in life were to propagate and to invade! My garden
was immediately infected by its ardent zeal, and soon I was spending two hours a
day trying to keep the weeds under control. It wasn't until I saw the fruits of
my labor however, that I became discouraged. Although tasty, my vegetables were
small and deformed. My dream garden vanished in front of my eyes, and the next
spring, that lovely garden plot became the foundation for a play area, complete
with a fort for my boys. Our only hope was that the building would keep the
weeds at bay!
Now, many years later, I look at my yard and I see that all my former plans came
to naught. The majority of our yard is either taken up by our septic bed
and won't allow the planting of trees, and the rest is too low and swampy to
support new growth. My "exotic" trees are centered around my brownish, algae
infested pond. I did succeed in planting a row of fruit trees along the side of
the septic bed, however they are all bent out of shape and leaning on their
sides due to the heavy winter winds. Stakes, no matter what kind, have been
totally unsuccessful in straightening them out. Instead, the fruit trees have
forced the stakes to bend over with them! Having a yard full of the "Leaning
Fruit Trees of Pisa" is quite unique, don't you think? (What on earth am I
talking about? Oh my vivid imagination!)
My tulip and daffodil fields are non-existent; however, I was able to plant a
number of berry bushes around the fruit trees. I carefully covered their roots
with a black anti-weed groundcover, and anchored it down with beautiful white
pebbles. I guess the weeds didn't read the manual, because they have succeeded
in taking over those white pebbles completely. And just try pulling out weeds
that are protected by a black tarp and pebbles!
I did plant a couple of weeping willow trees around the pond and another at the
drainage ditch in front of the property, and these look gorgeous. The only other
exotic tree ended up being planted on the front lawn. It is a Sequoia tree, but
it looks half-demented, as the side facing the wind is completely bare! I guess
it fits perfectly with the rest of my landscape!
We do have one weekly pleasure. That is to ride the lawn mover over what is
supposed to be our lawn, and cut all of the weeds down to grass-length. How good
it feels to have a yard semi-clean of weeds for a day! However the yard does not
take such action lightly, and it sends out revenge with extreme vengeance. When
the ground is wet enough to comply, it reaches out and grabs our tractor,
swallowing its tires in a mess of foul-smelling mud. In dryer times of the year,
it hires swarms of nutty mosquitoes and kamikaze wasps, all of which think that
the tractor-driver is its personal target!
As the years go by, my yard looks less and less like my original dream, and more
and more like a messy junkyard, where weeds reign supreme. I can only take
comfort in one fact: My Heavenly Father knows exactly how I feel. He faced the
same problem when He created us. He had great, outstanding plans for us, but we
turned our back on Him. We wanted our own messy, smelly, heartbreakingly
rebellious plans, and we turned His eternal plans into a junkyard of messed-up
lives! Look at these two Bible texts:
"There's nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody
alert for God. They've all taken the wrong turn; they've all wandered down blind
alleys. No one's living right; I can't find a single one. Their throats are
gaping graves, their tongues slick as mud slides. Every word they speak is
tinged with poison. They open their mouths and pollute the air. They race for
the honor of sinner-of-the-year, litter the land with heartbreak and ruin, Don't
know the first thing about living with others. They never give God the time of
day." (Rom 3:10-18 The Message)
"They leave them littered with junk - a ruined land, a land in lament. The whole
countryside is a wasteland, and no one will really care." (Jer 12:11 The
message)
God is more persistent than I am, however. Where I have given up on my yard, God
refused to give up on us. He refused to see us turn into junkyards, and He did
the impossible. He removed the stubbornly addicting weeds from our life! How? By
becoming one of us, by dying in our stead, by paying the penalty of our
rebellion. He showed us the way out, and now He willingly shares His
resurrection life with anyone who will accept it.
Amazingly, those who have a personal relationship with Him are changed from
junkyards into gorgeous fields of tulips and daffodils: "And so we are
transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and
more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him." (2 Cor 3:18 The
Message)
It is sad that many have turned away from this loving message from God because
of the religion of mere men. They pretend to worship God, but instead their
legalistic, self-centered rituals denounce who they really are: "When you come
before me, who ever gave you the idea of acting like this, Running here and
there, doing this and that - all this sheer commotion in the place provided for
worship? Quit your worship charades. I can't stand your trivial religious
games!" (Isa 1:12-13 The Message); "I'll give away their religious junk..."
(Ezek 7:21 The Message)
Instead of accepting God's offer, so many try to reach heaven by their own
endeavors. How God hates such endeavors! Instead of trusting their Heavenly
Father, they trust solely in themselves and the vomit they create: "You may
think you have cleaned out the junk from your lives and gotten ready for God,
but you weren't hospitable to my kingdom message, and now all the devils are
moving back in." (Matt 12:45 The Message); "For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by
works, so that no one can boast." (Eph 2:8-9 NIV)
The only way out of this mess is by getting rid of all of our legalistic
religious junk, and centering our attention on Jesus. He is the only one who can
revolutionize our personal junkyard and turn us into splendid fields of glorious
flowers! Developing a personal relationship with him is out of this world!
"The phrase 'one last shaking' means a thorough housecleaning, getting rid of
all the historical and religious junk so that the unshakable essentials stand
clear and uncluttered. Do you see what we've got? An unshakable kingdom! And do
you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship,
deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He's
actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won't quit
until it's all cleansed. God himself is Fire!" (Heb 12:27-29 The Message)
P. S. Did I tell you about the poisonous mushrooms in my back yard?
Maybe this would be better left for another time.
P. S.S. I would like to thank the group Delirious, for helping me develop this
message.
Rob Chaffart