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Dandelions

This week, I was looking over my lawn and observed that the dandelions are threatening to take over. These little yellow flowered plants are among the hardiest I know. I’ve been doing battle with them since I was a child when my parents would send me into the yard with a little tool designed to cut them off below ground level. But even that was to no avail; they can grow back from even a fragment of living root left behind.

Before a law was passed in Ontario prohibiting its use the most common way of dealing with dandelions on a wide scale was the regular application of chemical herbicides. Now, we’re trying to find other ways. Some I’ve tried, some I haven’t. Apparently, vinegar kills dandelions when applied directly. The downside is that it also kills grass. If you’re not careful your lawn could end up with little dead patches all over it.

A totally chemical-free suggestion is to pour boiling water on them. I haven’t discovered how much you need to use, and, again, boiling water will kill your grass as well. In the same chemical-free category is a gizmo I saw advertised. It is actually a flame thrower and is not recommended for use in lawns. They do recommend it for weeds growing in gravel or in the sidewalk cracks. I’m not sure if this would be legal everywhere!

This week, I was looking over my life and observed that sin was threatening to take over. Pride, selfishness, self-indulgence, contempt, laziness, lust and envy are among the hardiest I know. I’ve been doing battle with them since I was a child when my parents would point them out to me and tell me I needed to get rid of them. I tried to cut them off before they were expressed, but to no avail; they would be back to the surface for all to see before I knew it.

People have been trying to figure out ways of dealing with sin and its consequences since the first person committed the first sin. Every human attempt has proven itself singularly ineffective. We might deal with an individual sin and assume we have it beaten, but others are always there ready to pop up and leave us wallowing in defeat.

While a definitive solution to the dandelion problem has never been found, there is one for the sin problem. Paul put it very clearly when he wrote to his Christian friends in Rome. Here’s how he expressed it, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1-4 ESV).

If this doesn’t describe your life, it could. Accept the death of the Lord Jesus as the payment for your sin and then live in the power of His Spirit.

Ron Hughes
© May 2009