gravel

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Your Actions May Not Be Making Things Better

Sometimes your actions and efforts to fix a problem just make that problem worse.

Your actions may not be making things better

The other day I picked some weeds out of the driveway at our cottage. They shouldn’t be there. We had fixed our weed problem last year (read here).

We have a gravel driveway with packed down white stones. I’m not sure how many inches thick it is, but it’s quite a few.

Over the last few years we noticed how the weeds have been coming up in the driveway in a more pronounced way. Our plan was to put some high-powered weed killer on the driveway, let it soak in and do its thing with the weeds. 

But we got a tip from a neighbour that a better solution would be to rake the driveway. 

It was certainly a more environmentally friendly approach to the weed extermination, and a far less costly one for us as well. 

What it did mean was a lot more sweat and effort on our part to get it done, but it seemed like a great solution. We tried it. 

We got out some rakes and started at the driveway systematically, digging deep down into the gravel and stirring those stones from the bottom up.  

It was like taking a comb to your scalp and going back and forth on it. … I’m not sure that’s good for your scalp and I’m sure now that it’s not so good for the driveway either. 

Mind you it looked great when we were done, like we had just put fresh gravel on our parking area. The stones were all fluffed up … if stones can be fluffy. I guess what I’m saying is they weren’t all hard packed and mashed together. 

We were pumped.

But probably within a week we noticed some weeds peeking through the gravel. 

How could this possibly be? We had gotten rid of all the weeds. They would have had to start from scratch to make their way through about three or four inches of gravel. 

Yet there they were. 

And now this year there seems to be even more and they are hardier than the variety that used to come up before we raked.

… This is an aside, but hear me out. I wonder if your hair was thinning and you wanted to stimulate growth in some way, maybe you could take a comb and really go at your scalp. Possibly you might be able to stimulate those hair follicles to start producing again. I’m not saying rush out and get yourself a new comb – it’s just a thought.

Anyway, back to our driveway this year. If we don’t get on this weed problem, instead of our driveway having a nice white stone look, it will have a hairy green look to it. 

This year we may have to apply the high-powered weed killer to the area and see if that action has better results.

Here’s the thing: If you take no action spiritually, you can bet the weeds of your own sin nature and societal influence will take over. Taking action spiritually is important; developing your faith is essential. It’s also important to take spiritual action that will make a long lasting impact on your life. Choose well what will stimulate spiritual growth in your life. Don’t let the weeds creep in.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What have you allowed to creep in to your life? Leave your comments and questions below.

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Our Driveway Looks Brand New

We got a new driveway in a matter of a few hours … and it didn’t cost us anything other that hard work and time.

driveway

At our cottage, our driveway is made of white gravel stones. When the light shines on those white stones it really looks great.

Over the years, however, weeds have somehow managed to creep up through the gravel and it has ruined the look altogether. 

So we’ve employed different methods to get rid of the weeds. 

We were told years ago that if we put some kind of cattle salt down on the gravel every year that would keep the weeds from growing. 

We did that for one or two years but then we noticed that a little tree beside the driveway had shrivelled up and died. Another tree looked like it was almost gone, and even a cedar shrub showed signs that it was dieting. 

I don’t know if it was the salt or not but we stopped using it immediately and, though we lost that one tree, the other tree survived with just one dead spot. The shrub is doing alright.  

The next method we tried was pulling the weeds that grew. But this didn’t do anything more than mask the problem for a time. 

If you don’t get at the roots, the weeds are still lurking just under the surface.

So after ten years we have been losing the battle of the weeds on our driveway.

I thought that maybe we needed another load of gravel to spread around, but I’m glad I never acted on that thought because what we found was truly amazing. 

Lily was outside picking some of the weeds out of the driveway when our neighbour saw her and told her his solution – he rakes his driveway.

He brought out the rake he uses and showed her what he does. 

I thought that because the weeds came up so easily that we had a thin layer of gravel covering the dirt underneath. Not so. We started to rake the gravel and after raking a good three or more inches deep, it was still all gravel. 

… Which, on the side, says something about weeds. Weeds can grow in the most extreme environments! They can work their way through three or four inches of hard packed gravel to get to sunlight. 

I wish the grass on our lawn worked that hard to provide us with a green carpet instead of the sparse, sandy sprouts that grow there.

It turns out that, when you rake down deep into a gravel driveway, you rake up not just the tops of the weeds but the roots as well. 

And, as you evenly spread the gravel back out over the driveway, it stays above the dirt, looking all fluffed up and sifted, like you just got a new load of gravel. 

It’s going to take a little while for the driveway to pack down again, but more importantly it will take a long while for those weeds to find their way through the gravel again. 

Here’s the thing: When you notice a sin or an unwanted trait that seems to be persistently presenting itself in your life, simply asking God for forgiveness is not enough. You need to dig deeper to uncover the root, why it’s persistent, and where it came from. When you get to the bottom of that sin or trait, then with God’s help you can keep it from showing up in your life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What persistent sin do you need to dig up in order to be free of it?