Potato Bugs, Weeds and our Hearts
Have you ever seen a potato bug? Ugly. Disgusting. Fat. I could go on, but I’ll leave it at that for now. When I see a potato bug a strange thing happens to me. I have to kill them. All of them. Like right now…I can’t wait ‘til later to do it…kill them. It’s kind of overwhelming. The killing part that is. Because where there is one potato bug there are always a lot more to follow. Like A LOT more.
This afternoon I went to the garden at A Refuge (my house for missionaries) to do one thing…pull weeds. That seems easy enough. Pull weeds. I can do that. And it shouldn’t take too long. Don’t ever tell yourself that…the too long part. There is no such thing as a small job in a large garden. The garden was a muddy mess after all the rain we’ve had, so I peeled off my good walking shoes and socks and waded into the mud. The potatoes were first. I started pulling weeds…and then I spotted them. Big, fat, orange potato bugs. Everywhere. Eating my precious potato plants. It was as if I had a mission from God Himself…kill the potato bugs. Not sure if it was really His mission, but I knew I was the one who had to do it. Killing those bugs was not easy. I couldn’t stomp them because I had taken my shoes off. I couldn’t bring myself to smoosh them with my fingers…too messy. Yuk. So I got creative. I found two rocks and started to work. No potato bug was safe…I found the fat ones, the not-so-fat-ones and the baby ones. They all died. (Don’t feel sorry for them…they’re really nasty little things.) A little orange blood here and there…a sore back from bending over and potato plants that look pretty sad…but the potato plants have been rescued. For now.
It’s not just my garden that has had some things in it that needed to die. Not just my garden that needed to have some weeds pulled out. My inner man…my heart…has also needed some work lately. I’ve had some spiritual bugs that have gotten fat and needed to be smooshed. Sometimes as life goes on, all of a sudden it seems…something has grown. Something that doesn’t belong in the garden of my life…in my heart…like the potato bugs. These things can get fatter and fatter until I decide to take my shoes off, get my feet dirty and do the hard work. Kill the thing. Recognize it and do what it takes to get rid of it. When God points out something in me that needs to die…it hurts to kill it. Really hurts. The big fat bug wants to stay there. Things like selfishness, pride, neglecting the poor and hurting and did I mention selfishness…can attach itself to my heart and get real fat real quick. Until God walks into the garden and says…it’s fat enough. It has to die. That hurts. Bad.
The potato plants have been rescued. The big fat potato bugs are dead. For now. But, I will need to go back to the garden soon. Real soon. Why? To check for those same ugly bugs again. They have a tendency to come back. So does my sin. So I will go back to my heart with God. Ask Him to examine it for what was once growing there. And if the same thing is trying to grow and get fat again…ask Him to smoosh it again…and again…and again.
Watching for potato bugs and…
Sending much love,
Debbie
