dealing with dandelions

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

~Romans 8:13

I recently heard a great analogy from a pastor visiting our church. The overarching theme was for believers to truly live the John 10:10 abundant life by being crucified with Christ and dying to self (Galatians 2:20). The teaching wove together Old and New Testament truths and was chock-full of challenging nuggets and visual comparisons. It was one of his examples from nature—specifically regarding dandelions—that got my mind spinning to expand upon and share his brief reference. 

Although we’re likely all familiar with this ubiquitous weed, I first had to dive into learning more about the properties of dandelions. Allow me to elaborate:

1. The bright yellow flowering head looks attractive (and is).
2. The stems are hollow.
3. The taproots are long and hinder other plants from growing.
4. They compete with and crowd out desired plants.
5. They are not only fast-growing, but they’re relentless—pushing their way through even the tiniest sidewalk cracks.
6. When the roots are superficially cut, they actually clone, so they quickly multiply.

Are bells and whistles going off for your spirit? Sounds an awful lot like sin, doesn’t it? Attractive on the surface, it’s only full of hollow promises for satisfaction. Fleshly activity competes for attention over the spiritual, hindering godly fruit from being realized. When a crack in our spiritual armor is found, sin pushes through oh so tenaciously. And just as overgrowth of dandelions can destroy a lawn, the final outgrowth of sin is death (James 1:15). (Each of these warrants its own devo!)

But let’s examine factoid #6: Managing dandelions is not an option. If you’ve got a yard where dandelions spring up, you know that the easiest way to get rid of them is to simply mow over them. The resulting lawn looks green and lush and healthy—from the observing eye. A day or so later, they pop back up. Often multiplied. See, dandelions must be uprooted or destroyed at the root level to really be rid of them. 

Beloved, the same is true with the sin in our lives! This is where the pastor used dandelions as one of his many examples of dying to self. See, too often we clip away the outward activity or habits that sprout up from our old sin nature. We can even make ourselves look tidy and “weedless” to our family, friends, and church. But those entrenched sins will rear their ugly heads again unless we kill them. Although we’re made free—a new creation—in Christ, we will be sinning until we’re glorified, so we’ve got to be diligent in uprooting what once controlled us. But we don’t (cannot) do this in our own power. We must yield to the Holy Spirit living in us to be the sin slayer. 

This growing freedom from sin comes only with our surrender—which requires our death to self, as we’re crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6-7). And every day is a day of death for us who follow Jesus (Luke 14:27)…because only then can the Holy Spirit serve as our personal spiritual pesticide, killing in us what’s intended to kill us.

Lord, today may I die to self a little more, so that Christ in me can free me from any sin that still enslaves me.