Bush-Whackers

A few years ago I had an addition put onto my house. At the same time as that addition was being done, my neighbor moved and someone else bought her home. The former tenant was elderly and was the original owner of the home since the 60's. Her husband had passed several years earlier. I mention these personal details only because they are relevant to the state of her home, you see it had become an overgrown jungle of bushes! You could barely see the front door of her home and the mulberry and thorn bushes had grow half way up her house and about four feet into her yard. There were more bushes then grass in her yard. It had become a sore thumb in our middle class neighborhood.
Well the new owner did great things, the first of which was tear out all of the bushes! Wow what a difference! The house looked great now that you could see it! They were not finished there as they basically replaced everything inside and out of the house a la Extreme Makeover: Home Addition. But it is the bushes I want to talk about, because they are the most relevent to me. You see much like urban sprawl drives out wildlife from its home, much had been driven out of these bushes. Not only a multitude of trash and refuse, but lots of rodents and other animals. What do these things do when they lose a home? Why they try to find a new one! Needless to say for the next year or so I set off many rodent and bug traps in and around my home which were largely due to the open access (my own construction) and to the survival need of these creatures. I am proud to say I think I have won the battle!

So what's in your bushes? What kind of trash do you need to get rid of that is so tightly wound around your life that even the strong wind that is the Holy Spirit is struggling to blow it out? What is living in your bushes? What undesireable things are crawling around in your life that need to find a new home? Secrets that no one knows exist except when they peek out to get a little taste of your life. Creatures that are perfectly willing to stick with you where it is comfortable but will be forced to leave if you rip out there surroundings. That is the hard part. You see that is alot of work. I watched the men who tore out those bushes sweat and bleed for days chopping down the bushes, it was hard work I was glad I didn't have to do.
But in reality, we should be pruning our lifes bushes every day. They need to be clean of trash and animal lairs so there are no secret places. If it means we have to tear out the bushes from the roots and start over, then do it! Do it for yourself! Whatever you have living in your bushes, from trash to wild life, set it free. Chances are your neighbor and friend will be better equipped to kill it then you, but as long as you let it live with you, they can never help you. WHAT IF we all commited to cleaning out the bushes of our own personal lives, what a difference we could make.