It’s raining today.  It’s been raining lots this spring. There have been summery, sunny days, too, but the rain comes back often.

The mixture of sun and rain has been great for weeds. I try to keep the weeds at bay, but they aren’t easily discouraged. I get especially annoyed at one vine-y kind of weed that seems to think it owns the fence around my back yard.

I’ve decided that I want to keep the fence clean this year. I can almost hear the weeds laughing at that decision. I get down on my hands and knees and work my way around the fence line with an old paring knife. I slide the blade under the weed and go as far underground as I can so that I’ll get at the root of the climbing weeds. When I’m done it looks really great -- for maybe a day and a half!

Those amazing weeds are back and beginning to reach for the fence in just as little as 36 hours. So I go through the process again, and again love the way it looks when I’m done. But I won’t have time for this process two or three times a week all summer!

A friend of mine whose son is a landscaper told me that her son thinks weeds are easy to control. He says that spending just minutes daily or half an hour each week using a good weed-killer will keep things looking good. I bought some of that weed-killer and I tried it, but the fence doesn’t look as good as when I use the knife.

The spray kills the weed as it is absorbed in the weeds’ leaves. It travels down to the roots to kill the whole plant. But it takes time to work.

When I use the spray, it doesn’t look like anything has been done to the weeds initially. And then even when the product does begin to work, the fence line doesn’t look good because the weeds are wilting and yellowing. But in the end the spray actually does a better, more thorough, longer-lasting job of controlling the weeds.

Sometimes the fast, outward-result way of taking care of an issue doesn’t really fix the problem. Things may look great for a while, but the problem’s root is still there and still growing. Usually a slower-to-show-results and more far-reaching process is necessary for long-lasting change.

Life changes have that in common with weeds. You may be able to make problems go away fairly quickly if you don’t mind them coming back quickly. But getting to the root of a problem is a longer process. Deep-reaching help is needed when permanent change is the goal.

God-help goes deeper than self-help. God can re-create us. He makes us new by forgiving the old and infusing us with new.  …if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17).  He gives us a new nature to put on.  …you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator (Colossians 3: 9 & 10). Knowing God is the work of strength, the investment that pays dividends of deep, real change in our lives.

The things we do in our own effort don’t last -- the Apostle Paul compared them to wood, hay, and stubble. But things done with God are permanent. Paul compares them to gold, silver, and precious stones.  So today, when I went outside to make that quick round with my bottle of weed-killer, I was thinking about the garden of my life and asking myself if I’m concerned with outside changes or if I’m working with God for deeper changes, real and solid...

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. 1 Corinthians 3: 11-15