Matthew Study 12:49

"... let both grow together until the harvest..."

'Worry not too deeply about the tares of regret, remorse, and addiction which seem eternally embedded within the soil of your heart.  For, once you begin tearing apart the tares, the precious stalks of Sacred History also lie in peril. Entrust your field to the Lord of the Harvest and let both grow together as he sanctifies you to himself."

We are a curious mix of humanity and Divinity. We are filled with New Wine and co-heir with Christ. Yet, we are human. (Redeemed Humanity is, after all, still humanity!)  Our minds are very capable of condemning us of events of our past. If we are not careful, these "tares" can become the object of preoccupation of our life. When that happens we become self-condemning and, if not monitored, filled with faithlessness and sorrow.

Sirach writes, "Love your soul, and comfort your heart, and put sorrow far away from you; for sorrow has destroyed many, and there is no profit in it." No wonder the psalmist writes, "I lift my eyes up to the mountains..."

I have found it helpful to agree with the facts which my mind is accusing me of, and even to agree with the facts that the devil throws in my face. I say, "Yes, you are right. That part of me is true, or was true. How wondrous a salvation in Jesus Christ, where all is forgiven as I offer these things to the Lover of my Sou!"

There comes a time in ones life where, after honest inventory, it's evident that our Fields contain good and evil. It is within this realization - this admission of truth - when a certain demeanor arises: Grace-filled Understanding.  It is in that instant, when we become free from the torment of our tares. True confession brings true freedom, even if we don't particularly like (or even want to admit) the depths of the roots.

This confession, of course, needs to be acknowledged before the back drop of Continued Sanctification - God's lovingly persistent mission to break up our fallow ground. All self-revelation needs to be fingered with the his hands of hope and of healing - and of the assurance that, as we agree with God as to the issues of our hearts, his Living Water is poured out and showers the fields in our heart. The field, after all is much greater than the tares. There is wheat there, too - wheat fit for the Harvest.

When we acknowledge both tares and wheat coexisting in the field of our hearts we become qualifiers for God's realized forgiveness and healing. We also see things in perspective. Jesus is Lord of the Harvest, he knows how the Garden grows, he is aware of the tares, he cares more-so for the wheat, he allows both to grow together for our own good, he isn't too distracted by their evil (in actuality, he has plucked their roots at the Dogwood Tree and rendered them powerless), and, at the end of the Day, they have no eternal merit.

In other words, he doesn't give them much power. Neither should we.

Let both reside. Live in the tension, knowing that on that Great and GLorious Day, all will be separated.