I woke up this morning with a word on my mind. The word was crabgrass. Yes, an odd word since all of our grass is now covered with snow... but I think I was being taught something.
Crabgrass is a great metaphor. Crabgrass is an obnoxious weed. It is hard to get rid of once it starts growing in your lawn. It spreads and grows quickly. Crabgrass loves thin turf. It grows well in lawns that are watered lightly, underfertilized, and/or poorly drained. It is very difficult for crabgrass to grown in healthy lawns. In order to get rid of crabgrass, you must kill it, and then replant new sod.
What most people do if they have crabgrass in their lawn, they usually ignore it. Instead of treating it, they just continue to mow it and keep the lawn short. From a distance, the lawn looks healthy and green. However, it is only when you get close enough, one can see it really isn't grass, but weeds.
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Sidenote: I like this quote from an article I read this morning. I think it speaks to the metaphor of crabgrass growing all around us... especially in "thin spiritual turf".
"Religious organizations instinctively develop teachings, practices, and cultures that tend to keep its members at early stages of spiritual development dependent on the organization. These stages are characterized by obedience, conformity, loyalty, a narrow view of morality, and external religious conduct. Though helpful at first, a focus on these qualities can become limiting and restrictive once an individual’s full spiritual potential begins to unfold. In theory, the purpose of a church organization is to guide one into an actual knowledge of God, which leads to spiritual rebirth and entrance into the Kingdom; however, in practice, churches ultimately hinder this transformative awakening and knowledge so that the organization can maintain its primacy. The human consequence of this organizational tendency is boredom and frustration since children of God with infinite, divine potential—who are ready to mature into the wonderfully mysterious and exciting stages of divine relationship and knowledge—are continually retained at the first grade of gospel teaching, while their souls ache for graduate instruction in the mind and heart of Christ."
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from article "Hindering the Saints: Taking away the key of Knowledge" by Philip McLemore
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