Nutsedge

In our home, Judy does the weeding and gardening while I mow the lawn. I don’t like yard work. I find myself wanting to curse Adam and Eve when I’m mowing the lawn. It’s their fault we have weeds. (Well, I did my part too). Recently she bought some new topsoil and placed it in specific parts of the yard. Evidently there were seeds of Nutsedge, a fast-growing grass weed, mixed within the topsoil.

When she had spread the topsoil, she seeded new, non-weedy, grass in it. No one saw the looming seeds of Nutsedge: it’s sneaky and has a mind of its own. The new grass started to grow and looked great. Then the Nutsedge appeared. At first there was a blade here and there. After four or five weeks, it was all over the place.

I don’t want to say it grows fast but I’m convinced it grows as I mow it. The Nutsedge outperforms the good grass: no kidding, it sprouts three times as fast as the grass. No matter where I look, I see this weed. It has affected everything.

The only good point is that the Nutsedge is at least green and doesn’t have thorns, but it’s still weed.  The real nuisance is how Nutsedge spreads: it starts off as hidden, small seeds. It is basically unseen at the beginning, because it’s mixed in with the good seeds. It started off so innocently. Everything was green. It looked good. Then all of a sudden some of the grass become the weed equivalent of the Incredible Hulk.

It’s a lot like sin. Sin just sneaks in as part of the good package. And, like our lawn, sin spreads. In fact, it can overtake the good stuff. In Matthew 13:33, I Corinthians 5:6 and Galations 5:9 there are statements about how a little yeast can add to the whole mix. To repeat, sin spreads. It’s like yeast or Nutsedge. It gets into everything. It might start out innocently but if you’re mowing the lawn, soon you’ll notice it’s everywhere.

Few of us get up in the morning and start the day by saying, “Let me think about what sins I want to commit today.” Yet by the end of the day, we always have to ask God to forgive us for our sins. The seeds of sin are sown among the seeds of good intentions.

I’m going to fight that Nutsedge. The battle probably will still be in process when the men show up for the Meet and Meat in August. But I’m – actually Judy and I – are going to try and kill it. We’re in it for the long haul. We’re going to resist it so the battle is on. We don’t want any weeds to stand. We will try to smite the mighty Nutsedge, which also has cohorts, allies, and other pesky seeds that will spread if we are not careful. These cohorts sneak in other areas, attack from the flanks, and hide among the flowers. Some are more prominent, armed with thorns and will draw blood. Pain might be involved but the battle will rage.

Judy and I are not alone in our battle against the Nutsedge. We have friends. We have hope. And we have a leader who will prevail. He has given us our strategy. We know that we must be watchful. We have been told by our leader and Savior:

The Nutsedge will fall and its cohorts with it.