Let It Grow

(If you’re singing a certain song in your head right now, you and I can be friends.)

I don’t like overgrown vegetation. Usually I cut things back as soon as they grow tall enough to annoy me. But this year I didn’t (I’m mellowing, can’t you tell?). By the time I noticed tall growth, I also noticed flower buds. And since these tall plants were not overtaking my yard or newly-cleared garden beds, I let them grow. And now I look out my back windows and see patches of purple, white, yellow, and orange on a see of green.

And so I think. . .

What am I preventing from growing in my own life? (I don’t have an answer for this right now – I’m writing about this as I’m living it.)

And . . .

What am I preventing from growing in the lives of others?

“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.” (Romans 16:17 ESV)

“Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” (Colossians 2:18-19 ESV)

As a teacher, it’s hard to step back and see what happens, what my students do when they’re left to figure things out and execute on their own. But I put guardrails in place before releasing them to work (think bumpers in duck pin bowling).

See what happens with God’s boundaries. And what are those boundaries? His commands we read about in Scripture.

“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” (1 Peter 2:1-3)

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:4-5 ESV)

Because God wants us to grow.

To grow His kingdom: “He put another parable before them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32 ESV)

To grow as believers: “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16 ESV)

To grow as His church: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25 ESV)

But don’t let everything grow.

Weed out sin: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV)

Weed out a bad attitude: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.” (Ephesians 4:31 ESV)

Weed out negative talk: “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath. slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.” (Colossians 3:8 ESV)

Weed out hypocrisy: “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander.” (1 Peter 2:1 ESV)

Did you notice common words in these verses? Wrath, anger, slander, malice – lots to weed out.

So, we have work to do. To not constrain God to our ideals, but to relax within his boundaries to see how He works in and through us. To find the roots of unwanted things in our hearts and dig them up, moving us closer to the person God wants us to be. It’s work, and it takes time, but it will be worth it!

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18 ESV)