Mushrooms, Weeds, and Other Sins

I hate pulling up mushrooms! I was just out in my backyard with my trowel and bucket digging up piles of awful mushrooms. It’s a daily occurrence. If I leave them my dog eats them and gets sick (I understand there can be benefits to mushrooms in a yard, however they are an eyesore). Just when I think I’ve got them all I wake up the next morning to a fresh pile, two or three piles! Oh! The sinful thoughts that run through my head as I kneel and dig them up. I’m not proud of those thoughts but it’s real, people. Digging up weeds, mushrooms, and anything else that shouldn’t be growing in my yard, creates all sorts of unpleasant feelings and reactions. If I only had to do it once in a while or there were just one or two that needed digging up that would be one thing but EVERY DAY those dang mushrooms pop up in new places, big and thick in varying kinds. It’s rare I find a single mushroom. Oh no! They are in clusters. Think grapes!! I hear them laughing at me as I dig them up, “Ha, you’re cute. We’re just going be here again tomorrow in a different spot.”

As I’m weeding or mushroom-ing (that should be the term for it) I can’t help but think back to the Fall in the book of Genesis, with Adam and Eve. Afterall, it’s their fault that I have to do this ghastly task, right? Were it not for their sinful choice to go against God’s design for them, there would be no nasty things growing in my grass. My lawn would always be luscious and green. Those weeds and mushrooms are a daily reminder for me that my sin is real and needs to be dealt with, on the daily. I need to confess my sins and make things right with the Lord. If I don’t, what might have been a single mushroom, will turn into a cluster, hard to dig up and more difficult to keep away. I don’t always take the time to clearly look at my sin. It's a bit uncomfortable, actually. Maybe I brush it over. "It’s not that bad. It wasn’t my fault". I can make excuses to avoid too close an examination. Whatever the excuse, each time I do that, another mushroom grows onto the cluster. Eventually, it’s so big and thick and deep that it takes more than just a little garden trowel to dig up. So, the lesson I learn from those pesky weeds and mushrooms that I detest is to daily confess my sins and not to let those sins grow and reproduce. Keep short accounts. I encourage you to ask the Lord to reveal the places you try to hide. Expose them to the light so that they won’t flourish in the dark. Let's have our prayer be, “Go deep Lord, dig it out at the root. Leave nothing behind to grow.”

Psalm 32:5

Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin.  

Proverbs 28:13

Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. 

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