Stay in Your Lane: Learning to Leave the Weeds to God
Today we're in our garden.
A few months ago, our family came out here, prepared the soil, planted the seeds, watered them, and dreamed about pulling fresh, long, orange carrots out of the ground.
There is just one problem with this garden.
The weeds.
We didn't plant them. We don't want them. But they grew and grew and grew—taller and taller. Some of them are taller than I am.
And they're definitely taller than the carrots.
Now they're blocking out the light and choking out these sweet little carrots. Maybe we should have pulled the weeds when they were small, while the soil was soft and they were easy to pull.
I'm new to gardening.
But all these weeds remind me of a story Jesus told.
Wheat and Weeds
Right after the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13, Jesus tells the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.
As the wheat grows, weeds begin growing alongside it.
The farmers go to the owner and ask:
“Didn't you buy good seed?”
It's almost as though they're looking for somebody to blame, someone they can point a finger at.
Maybe they were even concerned that the blame would fall on them.
But the owner doesn't blame the farmers.
He tells them an enemy has done this.
So naturally, they want to know what they should do next.
Should they pull out the weeds?
No.
The owner tells them to leave the weeds. When harvest comes, the harvesters will take care of them.
No blame.
Just: This is what we're going to do.
Who Is in Charge Here?
What stands out to me in Jesus' parable is the question of who is in charge.
Who is the owner here?
Through this farming illustration, Jesus points us toward remembering who is responsible and where authority lies.
Because I can certainly relate to those farmers.
I see weeds.
I see things that are wrong.
I see things that are messed up.
I see the enemies.
And I want to pull them out.
I want to get rid of them.
But it's not my job to deal with the weeds.
And that can be tough.
When We Want to Tag the Weeds
There are people who catch pickpockets and spray orange dye on their faces. The dye stays on their skin for several weeks so everybody knows who the pickpockets are.
Sometimes, if I'm honest, I want to be on that team.
Tag everybody who's out of line.
But in this story, Jesus reminds me:
“That is not my job.”
And I especially like that the farmers don't even have to deal with the weeds at harvest.
The owner instructs the harvesters what to do.
It's an entirely different group of people.
The farmers have their job.
The harvesters have their job.
God has God's job.
“The point is, stay in your lane.”
Letting People Be in Process
So how do we actually do that?
How do we allow other people to be in process?
How do we allow someone to be what we might see as a weed and still trust that God is at work in their life?
It means believing God can redeem them and whatever is happening in their lives.
It means holding hope for them even when all we can see is:
Whoa. What a mess.
Maybe step one is simply knowing what my job is.
And knowing what it isn't.
It's not my job to pull the weeds.
God is responsible for that, and I can trust God to do God's job.
What Is My Job?
If pulling the weeds isn't my job, what is?
“My job is to be the hands and feet of love and kindness, gentleness, and patience, and hope—bring God's love into this world.”
But even that begins somewhere else.
Before we can bring those things into the world, we have to receive them ourselves from God.
Then we can share them with grace toward others.
Because:
“We can't give what we've not first received.”
God is at work.
And there are weeds.
We hold those two things together.
We don't have to deny that something is wrong. We don't have to pretend we don't see the mess. But seeing it doesn't mean we're responsible for fixing everything we see.
Sometimes faithfulness means trusting God enough to leave God's work to God.
So may you know what is yours to do today.
And may you also know what is not yours to do.
May you receive God's love, kindness, gentleness, patience, and hope for yourself—and then offer those things freely and graciously to the people around you.
And when you're tempted to start pulling weeds that aren't yours to pull, remember:
Stay in your lane.
