Defeating Sin in Our Lives is a Process...
June 15, 20-- (Happy Birthday RGS! Think of you every year...)
Perhaps defeating the sin in our lives is like dealing with
certain weeds in our gardens and yards. We have loads and loads of wild
raspberries in our yard, complete with thorns. I have been pulling what could
be pulled up by the roots (not many) and clipping at ground level what won’t
pull, for years, now. They grow profusely among the other wild plants that I
would like to keep for their beauty...
When I first began this endeavor, I often had to deal with a
discouraging, even mocking, inner voice that kept telling me I was wasting my
time, they would just grow back. But I enjoyed watching them be gone, even for
a little while, so I continued. It was satisfying and therapeutic to see the
area after I clipped, free of the offensive brambles.
As I continued doing this, I began to think about what was
going on with the plants, and applying my limited knowledge of plant biology. I
understood that plants get their energy from the sun, which they use to make
sugar for themselves, and they store some of this sugar in their roots and
branches to use for later. And I came to the conclusion that they can’t continue to grow back if I continue to clip them down
when they pop up, because they are using their stored energy to try and grow
again, and they only have so much
stored energy. Eventually they won’t be able to ‘try again’. And apparently, I
came to the right conclusion, because now, after four seasons, very few and
tiny raspberry plants come up in the areas where I consistently clip.
So, how much of the energy of the sin that hinders us is
stored in its roots? Perhaps
what seems like a hopeless task, defeating the sin in our lives, is actually
just a matter of persistently cutting it off when it appears, over and over
until it loses strength? And how much of the effective ‘cutting’ is in the form
of the sacrament of reconciliation?
This year I began a campaign against another unwanted weed
in my yard – bracken ferns. The send up very stiff, tall (up to 3 feet) ‘arms’
with little fists on the end that uncurl into very large leaves that shade
everything beneath them. They are easy to clip, being tall and obvious, and I
thought they would be piece of cake to get rid of. But within a few days of
clipping every one of them in a certain area, twice as many would shoot up.
Maybe more than twice as many, but I don’t want to exaggerate!
So I went at it again. I am expecting that more will pop up,
but I know they are growing up from roots that only have so much stored energy
in them, so I am expecting that they will pop up smaller and smaller until they
can’t pop up any more. And that next year they will come back with less vigor,
and the next even less, until they come back no more!
