Recover Your Passion: Pulling Weeds
Rhythms of Renewal: Create Rhythm - Recover Your Passion: Pulling Weeds
Sometimes in our lives, a cluster of good things comes our way, and we eagerly invite those things to come and share in our lives.
They certainly couldn’t be described as bad things, but they also aren’t the main things if we’re really honest with ourselves. And sometimes, little by little, those things sneak in and overtake our garden. They start to dominate and crowd out the original intentions of the showpieces of our space, time, and energy. In this analogy, the main things equate to our passions. God created each one of us to find joy and enthusiasm and fulfillment in things in life, but sometimes the weeds of distraction — even of good things — threaten to drive out the beautiful priorities that we set out to put above all other things.
Our family is coming out of a busy season of commitments and involvement, and as we spend more time at home over the past couple of weeks, I am joyfully remembering and embracing the simplicity of a slower pace. It’s hard for me (or probably any one of us) to judge ourselves fairly or to label things that our families love as distractions — or, less complimentary yet, as weeds — but I certainly understand the metaphor Rebekah Lyons paints in her chapter about recovering your passion.
Another resounding truth we can all recognize about a gardening analogy: things can creep right back in even after we think we have pulled them out. It’s one of the parts of taking care of a yard that I don’t particularly like; once you cross a task like pulling weeds off the “To-Do” list, it insists on pushing itself right back on there again, seemingly daily. Distractions have a way of morphing into something else that seems less problematic at first or perhaps not obediently responding to the Roundup we try to spray. We have to stay vigilant, and we have to stay at it; otherwise, those gorgeous lilies get overtaken by the mint plants we long to annihilate.
What would you view as your most precious flowers in your life? What do you want to protect and keep blooming? Would you be able to identify the invasive plants that are working to overtake those glorious centerpieces of your garden? Be honest and be real, and think about what you are choosing to allow to be nourished in the backyard of your soul!
