One short reading a week: a story, a Scripture, and a question to think about until the next one.
The thistle looked fine
My daughter was watering a weed. It was the healthiest plant in the yard.
A few summers ago I was mowing a yard we'd just had landscaped, and I found my daughter behind the house with the watering can.
She was four. She was being careful. She was watering a thistle.
Not a little one, either. This thing was four feet tall, and it looked great. Thick stalk, big leaves, a purple top on it. If you didn't know what it was, you'd think somebody planted it on purpose.
I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Daddy, it's growing so fast because I water it every day."
She was right. That was exactly why.
I've thought about that more than I've thought about most sermons I've heard. Because she wasn't doing anything wrong. She was doing everything right. She just had the wrong plant.
That's most of us.
We're not lazy. We're not careless. We show up every day with the can and we pour. We just don't always look at what we're pouring on. The job gets watered. The image gets watered. The old grudge gets watered because we keep going back to it. And then we stand in the yard and wonder why the thing we actually wanted never grew.
Paul said it plainly:
"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." (Galatians 6:7, ESV)
Not "whatever one hopes for." Whatever one sows. Whatever one waters.
So this week, don't try to fix anything. Just look. Walk out to the yard and look at what's thriving, and ask where it's been getting its water.
So, what are you watering this week?