As a young man growing up, spending time on my grandfather’s farm was the best part of my summer. I liked being away from the city. I liked the wide-open spaces of the farm, and I especially liked being with my grandparents for a few weeks.
One thing about being on the farm is everybody works. Depending on our age and ability, all of us grandchildren were assigned chores whenever we visited. I liked most chores I was assigned. Collecting the chicken eggs and helping to feed the cows were chores I could be trusted to handle.
Most days, we completed the barnyard chores first thing followed by work in the field. I liked working in the field because that usually meant driving a big farm truck or riding around on the tractor.
But not this day!
Hoe the Weeds
On this particular day, once the barnyard chores were completed, grandpa walked over to me with two hoes, handed me one and said, “follow me.” I thought, “Great. I like working in the garden!”
However, instead of heading for the shade of the garden, grandpa headed for the summer fallow field. For you city folk, the summer fallow is the field that had a crop last year but is resting this year. You let the soil rest, absorb nutrients, and collect moisture so it will give you a better crop next year.
By now, it was mid-day, the sun was high in the sky, and there was no shade in the 600-acre field.
Grandpa pointed into the field and said, “Walk the field and hoe all the weeds you see.” Again, for you city folk, a 600-acre field is about a mile down and a mile across!
You can imagine my excitement waning as I trudged, hoe in hand, through the field. The soft dirt gave way under my every step, sucking at my feet. I was sweating and tired before I even found my first weed!
It took the entire rest of the day to clear the weeds from that field.
More Weeds
The next morning, I went about my barnyard chores as usual. Then, just as I was finishing, I looked up in horror as grandpa appeared with two hoes in hand. “Follow me,” he said, walking out toward the county road.
“What now?!” I thought. “We cleared the field yesterday!”
We walked about a mile down the road to the edge of grandpa’s property. He turned and said, “Hoe the weeds at the roadside all the way back to the farmhouse.”
Grandpa took one side of the road, while I took the other side.
I thought weeding the field yesterday was terrible, but this was worse!
First, there were a lot more weeds on the roadside. Plus, the side of the road was a ditch, so to weed it, I had to climb up and down the sides of the ditch!
As we worked our way down the road, weeding as we went, I asked grandpa, “Why are we weeding the side of the county road, it’s not even your property?”
Grandpa said, “The weeds don’t know whose property it is. If we don’t hoe the weeds by the roadside, they will turn to seed and blow into the fields. The weeds will get mixed in with the wheat and reduce the value of our crop.”
Every farmer knows weeds are bad news.
1) Weeds rob the soil of nutrients and water that the crop needs.
2) Weeds take up space crowding out the good crop.
3) Small weeds become big weeds.
4) Weeds multiply!
So, it turns out hoeing the weeds was important, not only to protect this year’s crop but next year’s crop as well.
Weeds in Your Life
Beware of the weeds in your life!
Think of your life like a farmer and his crop. You want to raise the best and biggest crop possible. Your crop is your God-given purpose. God has created this specific purpose solely for you.
But those weeds! Weeds are all the distractions and interruptions that take up time and resources and get in the way of bringing a bumper crop of living out your God-given purpose.
Weeds multiply. One distraction gives birth to a second distraction, and suddenly you’re surrounded by weeds (aka distractions)!
Small weeds grow into big weeds. Small distractions grow into big distractions.
Weeds take up space and resources. You have only so much time and energy to do what God has called you to do. Weeds rob you of your time, energy, and other resources that could have been devoted to God’s purpose for your life.
The lesson for us as leaders today is, we need to weed the fields in our life. We need to rid ourselves of the distractions that take us away from God’s best.
We need to keep weeding the fields of our life because weeds have a way of constantly coming back!
More Articles
I have written several articles on priorities. You can find them by typing “priorities” in the search bar. Meanwhile, here are four of my most recent favorites.
- #358: The Ruined Day That God Turned into A Wonderful Day
- #283: Being Busy Is Not the Same Thing as Doing Things That Matter!
- #093: Nine Keys to Fulfilling Christianity
- #044: Five Requirements to Finish the Race Well!
Join the Conversation
As always, questions and comments are welcome. Are there weeds in your life today that are keeping you from living out God’s purpose?
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Category: Personal Development | Priorities
And just like real weeds, the weeds of distraction, once multiplied, take a long time to eradicate!
Ain’t that the truth!