Weeds

It's amazing what can happen to your yard from a month of ill-attention. Andrew and I spent most of the morning pulling and digging and cutting and sweating (and complaining).

I kept looking longingly at my new chair cushions and thinking , I just want to sit with an iced tea and and a magazine and enjoy my yard. 

But there was work to do before the enjoyment came.

And it made me think, this is why we work with college students. 

We didn't plant these weeds or cultivate them to grow, they just did. They are indigenous to this soil. Your average student (present company included) just wants to live an organic life. I'm not talking about eating chia seeds, I'm talking about living "free" and letting what grows in their heart, grow.

They (I) don't want to cultivate their hearts or weed out the things that could be harmful.

But some day... maybe ten years down the road... their heart is going to be overgrown.

With greed. With discontent. With financial problems. With anxiety. With apathy. With broken relationships. With addictions. With regrets. With unforgiveness. 

With a desire to have a purpose but no desire to pursue the One who gives it to them.

They will want to sit back with an iced tea and enjoy their life, but there will be no time. There will be too many weeds to pull. It certainly can be done in ten years, and with Jesus there is always redemption. But it will be painful.

Our hope, as we walk alongside these students, is that they would start now to understand the plan that their great Creator has for their heart. And that they would start weeding and cultivating and start enjoying the abundant life promised to them by Jesus himself.