August Devotional from Area Director

Weeding and Weeping 

After being gone 5 weeks, I was amazed at how green our lawn looked except for the few places where the grass was dying leaving patches of dirt.  Upon closer inspection, the stark realization hit me: the green I saw wasn’t the grass but the weeds!   Deceptively, the weeds were growing under the grass, killing the grass but everything looked good.   The most treacherous weeds had grown comfortably under the cloak of the healthy grass and were multiplying with a vengeance.

With weeding on my mind, I went to church and heard a message on repentance. That’s when it hit me:  weeding and weeping have a lot in common.  Joel 2:12-13 states: “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting and with weeping…rend your heart and not your garments.” NKJV

As missionaries we do have a public self (garments) and a private self (our heart) to attend.   Although they are both important, God is more concerned about our hearts than the image the public has of us.   Or as Joel states it, “rend your heart and not your garments.”   God help us to be broken and to weep during these critical days in which we live.    Don’t allow weeds of bitterness, despair, anger or doubt to be hidden by your missionary mystic.   Be real.  Weed your garden because everything that really matters flows from the issues of the heart.