Uproot

I’ve recently been given more free time in my life and I started volunteering at a local PCUSA church garden. I felt a call, a yearning in my soul to volunteer at the garden, thinking it was primarily to help the hungry. And even as I pull these weeds, the Holy Spirit speaks to me. Gardening is a new way for me to connect to the spiritual inward life.

How many lies have we believed? How many agreements have we made based upon someone else’s opinions that are not serving us? In fact, they are like weeds taking up space in the garden of our soul and ultimately they’re preventing us from flourishing. A weed is a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants. What beliefs do we still believe that are acting as weeds; draining us of energy and joy?

Here are some of my weeds that I’m working with the Holy Spirit to uproot in this new season:

1). The belief that everyone needs to be the same. 2). The belief that if an individual does not say a personal salvation prayer, they will spend eternity separated from God. 3). The belief that God has a penis. Haha!

4). The belief that sex is bad, dirty, or sinful and only for the purpose of a woman pleasing a man in marriage and child-bearing. 5). The belief that some people are perfect and that if and when I attain perfection, then I can rest, be myself, and celebrate the beauty of life.

6). The belief that I am unwhole, that something is inherently wrong with me because I am different. 7). Fear

8). Shame

9). The belief that I am powerless. 10). The belief that I have to look a certain way to be beautiful or fit in.

In John 15, Jesus talks about gardening and how our connection to the Divine is through his Holy Spirit and how when we stay connected we bear the fruit of loving oneanother as our selves. So as we allow the Holy Spirit to prune the weeds of fear and shame away from our soul, may a fertile soil of love remain that we may allow the body of Christ, good human-beings, to plant seeds of love (acceptance) in our hearts. As the Holy Spirit waters the seeds of love, they will grow and we will bear much fruit; such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, and self control (Galatians 5:22)

”We can’t change the past but we can change the future.” His Holiness the Dali Lama.