Out of Control

The other day I was out working in my yard and found myself bummed out by how my backyard looks. During our remodeling our backyard was the dump for all the trash that would eventually be hauled away, so it was nearly impossible to do anything back there. Now that the mess is gone, it’s time to get it ready for the summer by doing some landscaping. Several years ago I decided that I wanted a maintenance-free backyard or at least as close as I could get to it being that way. So we took out all the grass, laid weed and grass barrier, planted some trees and bushes, and filled in the rest with mulch. Each year we’ve refreshed the mulch and touched up other areas but the yard has been pretty much maintenance free.

This year, something happened. Our easy to maintain backyard has gone crazy with growth. I’m amazed that the areas in my yard where I’d like to see grass growing never experience any growth yet an area where I removed all the grass now looks like a wild meadow. The grass is probably a foot tall and looks like nice, strong grass, but I don’t want it there. My weeds are growing so tall that they could almost be mistaken for trees. And everything we’ve done in the past to keep it simple is going to have to be redone. Now that our house is pretty much put back together, it’s going to be time to focus on our backyard and redoing a lot of the landscaping.

Have you ever noticed how our lives are like that? There are things that I try to eliminate from my life because they make life a little more difficult and I just don’t want to deal with those things any longer. I can clean things up, get priorities in order, and feel like I’m on the right track, and I can even maintain it for a period of time. Yet, as good as I am about making those changes and taking steps to make my life better, those undesirable things always have a way of trying to sneak back in. Those things remind me that my life needs to be evaluated and to turn to the Lord who can help me overcome them.

At the same time, I’m reminded that in my life there are areas where I really want to grow, but they need my constant attention and work to grow properly. It doesn’t just happen because I want it to; it happens because I put myself in position to stay strong and grow in those areas. All of us go through these battles and I want to encourage you that the out-of-control stuff can be brought back under control. It’s your life and you need to live it in the way that God has called you to live.