The Weeds of Complacency

Weeds are usually easy to identify. Look at the before and after photos below:

 

Before                                                             After

            

What you can’t see in the first photo is the invasive vines that are intertwined with the plants, slowly crawling up the wall of my house.

 

I pulled vine after vine out of that area, slowly working to untangle the good plants from the bad. I probably still didn’t get it all.

The vines are invasive, but they have a pretty purple flower, leading you to believe that they are ok to just let grow. But before long, you realize it’s destroying everything you planted and taking over. 

It is the same with the lack of compassion, with silence, with hatred and the weeds of complacency.

When I think about my upbringing, I know that my parents were good people. They taught me right from wrong, and not to judge others. They showed us that we should always give an honest day’s work for a day’s pay. 

They were also part of the “grin and bear it” generation, who took the bad with the good without complaining. Emotions and feelings were a sign of weakness, a distraction that wasn’t needed for survival. If something happens, you got over it and kept going.

I don’t think this is fundamentally bad, but taken too far it breeds a lack of compassion for oneself and others.

I know that many others of my generation were brought up the same as me. We minimize the pain of others with dispassionate responses. We discretely shame others for being open about their emotional pain or feelings. Some use religion as a platform for self-righteous bullying. Most of us are so used to clamming up, holding it in, not speaking out, that we barely notice we are doing it.

It shouldn’t be this difficult to be compassionate for our fellow man, but it is. Even so, it is something my generation needs to work on improving.

Our pastors have been speaking about this the past several weeks. We are called to more. We shouldn’t stay silent in the face of injustice. We are to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with our God. Micah 6:8

Over the past several years I have been praying for Jesus to let me see people as he sees them, to soften my heart. I am stubborn, hard headed and my lack of compassion still lurks.

Lately, I have had some great conversations, argued some points that I NEVER would have in the past. I have stood my ground, even stood up for my fellow man. I have reacted with compassion for injustices done to others, I have even started to feel a healing anger for some injustices in my past, to lay some things down and forgive.

Pulling out the invasive weeds take some work. I have to check that spot in the yard periodically, taking care to pull out any new weeds that grow. It takes work to unlearn things that come naturally to us, but it’s worth the effort.

Bible Reference:

Micah 6:8 He has showed you, o man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.