Extirpate

Extirpate:

1. To pull up completely by the roots.


Life is like a garden.

Your life carries along. There are beautiful flowers in your garden. Trees that produce fruit. Birds sing in the branches. Bees flit from plant to plant.

But there are also weeds. Poisonous plants. Parasites. Pests. Things that can come in and take over the garden.

A garden needs to be cared for. Plants need to be pruned back. Watered. Harvested.

Weeds need to be removed. Pests and parasites chased away.

Problem is, a garden can't do that by itself.

Sure, a garden can grow in the midst of thorns...but those thorns and weeds will eventually choke out the plants that need care.

A garden by definition is a place that is cultivated and cared for. Set apart.

A garden needs a gardener.

Cutting weeds does nothing, for they will only grow back. Instead, you have to uproot them. Problem is, sometimes, the roots go deep.

Really deep.

When that happens, you have to dig, and dig, and dig. The gardener has to burrow into the soil until they find the last tiny fragment of that root and rip it out.

Remember, this garden is your life.

Uprooting hurts.

When you recognize a deep seated issue, a weed, or a lie, or a hurt, that has taken root in your life, it must be removed. Otherwise it will take over. It will mar your garden.

Let the Gardener do His work.

Yes it will hurt, yes it will by messy, yes it will cut deep.

But when it is gone, when that root has been extirpated...

You will be free.