Pulling Weeds
Good day to each of you reading this column on pulling weeds.
Before I begin, a good friend and colleague sent me the following joke for you to read—this is great American humor and thought you would appreciate it before I get into the column.
Why Did The Chicken Cross The Road?
Donald Trump: I’ve been told by my many sources, good sources – they’re very good sources – that the chicken crossed the road. All the Fake News wants to do is write nasty things about the road, but it’s a really good road. It’s a beautiful road. Everyone knows how beautiful it is.
Joe Biden: Why did the chicken do the…thing in the…you know the rest.
Sarah Palin: The chicken crossed the road because, gosh-darn it, he’s a maverick!
Barach Obama: Let me be perfectly clear, if the chickens like their eggs they can keep their eggs. No chicken will be required to cross the road to surrender her eggs. Period.
AOC: Chickens should not be forced to lay eggs! This is because of corporate greed! Eggs should be able to lay themselves.
Hillary Clinton: What difference at this point does it make why the chicken crossed the road.
George W. Bush: We don’t really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or against us. There is no middle ground here.
Dick Cheney: Where’s my gun?
Bill Clinton: I did not cross the road with that chicken.
Al Gore: I invented the chicken.
John Kerry: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken’s intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.
Al Sharpton: Why are all the chickens white?
Dr. Phil: The problem we have here is that this chicken won’t realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he is acting by not taking on his current problems before adding any new problems.
Anderson Cooper: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.
Nancy Grace: That chicken crossed the road because he’s guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.
Pat Buchanan: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.
Dr. Seuss: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I’ve not been told.
Ernest Hemingway: To die in the rain, alone.
Grandpa: In my day we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.
Aristotle: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.
Albert Einstein: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?
Colonel Sanders: Did I Miss One?
A big thanks to my friend Doug Huntington—just what we need in a very strange time indeed.
As a kid growing up, my parents gave me plenty of chores which included yardwork in the hot Florida sun. Cut the grass, edge the grass, prune the flowers, and the most dreaded of all, pull the weeds.
Get down on your knees and pull the weeds—every one of them and don’t miss a one so they won’t come back. Yes, you guessed it, I missed a few and they came back with a vengeance.
When you think about it, you can pull the weeds thinking you won’t have to do it all summer since you got all of them and in a few weeks, they come back uninvited.
Years have passed and you know what, I have begun enjoying pulling weeds. I thought I would never say that, but my wife and I have been pulling weeds for many, many years together.
Strange? Not really—think about it—no television, no cell phone, no phone, no distractions, no computer, no gadgets—just getting down on your knees pulling weeds.
Ah, but it doesn’t end there—You’re not just pulling weeds, but you are actually conversing with your partner. This is something that has been lost in too many marriages. Just talking, laughing and bringing back memories that the two of you shared.
When you aren’t talking, then you are on your knees pulling those pesky weeds. But remember, as one said, you do your best work on your knees and that best work is praying and just talking to God.
No interruptions, no distractions, no diversions, just a wonderful conversation between you, your maker and your surroundings.
As you weed, did you see the color of the butterfly pollinating the hydrangea? Did you smell the butterfly bush? Did you hear the sounds of the cardinal? Have you noticed the different colors of green in the trees?
After you pulled the weeds, did you see what grew in their place? What is it – some grass, a small plant or a flower?
We all know the story of Adam and Eve and that they ate the fruit of the tree of both good and evil. God says the following in Genesis 3:17-18 (FF) Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree which I commanded you, saying, ‘Eat not of it;’ I will set the ground apart for your cultivation; in sorrow you shall eat from it every day of your life. It shall grow thorns and briars for you; but you shall have the plants of the field for food.
Well, there you have it, thorns, briars, weeds and such growing in a place designated for the plants of the field for food. Thank you Adam!
Like Adam, we are gardeners, cultivating the ground under the hot sun, tilling the earth in hopes of growing plants of the food for food and toiling by the sweat of our brow.
The object of the lesson is not the above paragraph but the result for we get to spend “quality time” with our Lord, we have the chance to Thank him for all that he does, for all that he created and for all the blessings we have received.
We truly do our best work on our knees looking upward for it says
in Genesis 3:19 (NIV) By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.
Folks, take the time to pull some weeds and get in touch with God!
May God Bless You and May You Bless God In all that you say and do!
