Ugh. We want to be weed killer and pull out those weeds. Now. Wouldn’t everything be better if that was so?

Not if you are the weed who God is granting his patience to as a possibility for repentance. Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? Romans 2:4.

Maybe you are the weed right now. Say yes to a Savior who isn’t you. God’s grace is giving you this chance.

For you wheat, we have need of those weeds. Something will be uprooted in you.

I want the weeds gone. It would be so much better for my anxiety, for my heart and my soul. But what if God is doing something in me through the very thing I want removed? What if that is what Jesus is also teaching in this parable of the wheat and the weeds?

Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’ ‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. ‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’” Matthew 13:24-30.

What if you truly believed that God is conspiring for your good? Even with all these weeds irritating you?

God can use what we never would have chosen.

Don’t confuse me with a gardener. I love a good metaphor. Gardeners know that weeds can be a vital food source for pollinators, especially in the early months of spring. Some weeds are among the first plants to bloom, providing nectar and pollen before many other flowers appear. Without them, bees and other pollinators would struggle to survive. Here’s the beautiful metaphor. The painful places that are being triggered in our lives can become the very places where we first recognize our need for God’s larger story perspective. When our strength fails, when fear starts leading, our carefully constructed identities crack. This is why we lean towards power over. Sometimes the very places we would most like to remove become the places where we first learn how deeply God meets us.

The ground becomes healthier.

When weeds die, they don’t simply disappear. Their roots decompose underground, feeding the soil, creating channels for water, air, worms, and microorganisms. Weeds leave the ground healthier than they found it. In much the same way when God redeems the mess we are living in (as is God’s nature), something good is always left. Such as we become more patient because we’ve learned something. More compassionate because we’ve learned perspective. More dependent on God because we’ve learned our own strength has limits. (Our love for self-autonomy does not want an ounce of dependence.) God leaves our souls richer than we were before we tangled with the hevel.

Better roots are formed.

Many weeds also send deep roots into compacted ground, breaking apart hard soil that other plants could never penetrate. Perspective often does something similar. It breaks up the hard places in us—our illusion of control, our self-sufficiency, our certainty that we don’t need anyone. What feels like being broken may be God loosening the soil of our hearts so his life can take root more deeply. The fruit of a life of rootedness is more goodness.

This weedy soil grows goodness.

Weeds hold our “soil” in place. The roots of weeds have a web-like structure that helps hold the soil they break up in place. This sort of rootedness is giving goodness a chance to grow. Yes, there is evil and there is an enemy. Do not minimize the work of the enemy. Remember God always redeems everything.

Great, sometimes this hevel serves a greater purpose. Sometimes the hevel we would give anything to remove becomes the very soil in which God grows something we could not have grown any other way.

Ponder the holy tension of that truth for a moment.

Don’t forget, there is a judgment day coming. The parable ends with a harvest. Jesus is clear that justice is coming. The weeds do not remain forever. The suffering of the vulnerable is not ignored forever.

We get to live now in this in-between. We have a choice to let our anxiety lead, or our fear, or we can grow our rootedness which will produce goodness. This world needs a whole lot more goodness.

That is my brave choice. Uncomfortable as it is. It is also rewarding.

Consider this perspective because the world needs the heartbreak you risk.

Read also: We Don’t Need More Weed Killers, an uncomfortable twist on the Parable of the Wheat and Weeds