August 18, 2014
A few weeks ago, my wife and I were in the front yard picking Creeping
Charlie (also known as Ground Ivy) out of the yard piece by piece.
I have a love/hate relationship with Charlie. He’s everywhere and I hate the way he looks
and takes over portions of the yard. On
the other hand, I love how reinforcing it is to get into a nice long piece and
have it keep on coming as I pull it out.
And I love the concrete results of weeding a portion of the lawn. Before: lots of Creeping Charlie. After: no Creeping Charlie. And I did it!
The key to pulling Charlie and limiting his inevitable return is to
pull not only the leaves and portions of the vine, but to get down at the
ground level so that you get as much of the roots as possible. It’s possible to pull up lots of Charlie and
have lots more Charlie back in just a week or two if you don’t get down to the
roots.
At one point, my wife went into the house or to another part of the
yard. Suddenly, or what seemed like
suddenly in my intense concentration on the battle, there were two charming young
ladies standing on my sidewalk and initiating a conversation along the lines of
“What are you doing?” It doesn’t take
long to realize who you are talking with when the Mormon missionaries come by. The name tags and similar first names give
them away. On the odd occasion that some
come by our house, I usually move directly to a statement of faith; recognize
that there are some differences in our theology that we are not likely to
reconcile, and come to a gentle parting of ways. But after we had talked for a bit, the nice
young ladies said that part of their missionary work was doing service work and
that they would be happy to come back and help pick Creeping Charlie.
We have a lot of Creeping Charlie.
So we set up a time that was open for them to come back for an hour of
picking Creeping Charlie and talking theology.
They came and they picked as best they could with the instructions and
practice we gave them. And as they
picked, they used traditional missionary
lines that you will be familiar with if you have met with them in the
past. “Do you have a favorite Bible
verse?” That sort of thing. I had crammed a bit with some background
reading of my own and had a few questions to raise with them. It was all friendly enough. And we kept picking. We established that we could not both be
right. They were quick to point out that
they were not trying to convince anyone to believe what they believe. They just wanted to talk. This seemed a bit disingenuous to me because
what else do missionaries do but work toward conversion to a way of
thinking? And we picked.
Here is what my wife noticed and pointed out after our missionary
friends had left. People, in this case
our Mormon missionary friends, like to stay on the surface of theology and find
points of agreement. When you press
people to go deeper, they often change the subject to something a bit
easier. They don’t like to get to the
roots. But it’s at the roots that we
discover that two people can talk about Jesus and be talking about different
characters named Jesus. Two people can
talk about a heavenly Father, but it’s not the same Father. Two people can talk about eternal life and
heaven and angels and devils and the definitions (the roots) are so different
that the conversation is really about two different things.
But if we get into the roots, it can get really uncomfortable. Many Christians are not comfortable at the
roots because they aren’t really sure how to define and defend their faith
themselves. The nice girls made note of
the fact that we clearly knew a lot more about the Bible and our faith than
most people they talked to. I believe
it. So many who attend church regularly
know so little about the roots of what they believe. It’s hard to have root level conversations
with similarly minded Christians, much less with missionaries from an
alternative view who seem so confident of what they believe. (One of my favorite moments of the time with the Mormons was when the
nice 21 year old told my wife and me that she could tell that we really
believed in our faith and in Jesus. It
was so adorably patronizing for this very confident young missionary to feel
the need and authority to affirm our faith for us! And we kept on picking.)
The problem with roots is that roots determine what comes out on the
surface. You can clear away the surface
so that it looks like the lawn is weed free.
But if you don’t get the roots, Charlie is right back there before you
can say – “Creeping Charlie.” When the
Pharisees were messing with Jesus about some Sabbath healing, he told them, “Stop
judging by mere appearances and make a right judgment.” (John 7:24). Dig deeper to the foundations; the roots of
what you believe.
“Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give
the reason for the hope that you have.” (1Peter 3:15). This doesn’t mean you have to be a university
level Bible scholar. But followers of
Jesus should be able to at least give a basic understanding of what and why
they believe what they believe and have some understanding of how what
Christians believe is different at the roots than others who may talk about
Jesus, but define him differently.
I certainly don’t fault the nice Mormon missionary ladies. They were kind in their confidence and simply
working hard at what they believe they have been called to do. And in doing so, they were working to advance
their belief system with an enthusiasm that many will never approach for any
cause, faith based or otherwise. But I
do believe that the roots of what they believe will produce a sort of Creeping
Charlie in the lawn of Truth. Jesus
said, “Every plant that my heavenly father has not planted will be pulled up by
the roots.” (Matthew 15:13). Work hard
to know the roots of what you believe so that you may not be pulled up. Work hard to help your kids (if you have
them) and others pull out the roots of theological Creeping Charlie of which
this world is producing more and more.
Just like picking Creeping Charlie, the exercise of pulling up the roots
of belief can be both frustrating and satisfying. But in both the literal and figurative sense,
a weed free lawn that stays weed free is worth the effort!
Jim
PS The nice missionary ladies worked hard at pulling Charlie from our
yard, too. But sure enough, a week
later, the places where they had worked were sprouting new little Charlies! I hope someday they are able to get at the
roots.
