In the Weeds

I've never enjoyed golf. Mark Twain famously said, "Golf is a good walk spoiled." No doubt it takes some skill to use a small round surface to hit an even smaller ball into a small canister hundreds of feet away and marked with a flag.

If you don't have that skill, you end up in the weeds.

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Weeds are invariably bad. There are invasive species of plants that can be beautiful as well as destructive, and some "weeds", like dandelions, can be eaten. But generally speaking, you don't want to be in the weeds.

Let me suggest there is one time when the weeds are positive. Not the dandelions, and certainly not in the game of golf. That one time will come straight from God to grow in your life as a hedge. The hedge may not be impenetrable; you may be able to push through if you insist, but you'll come out scratched and bruised on the other side. The wrong side.

Hosea is one of those obscure books of the Bible. Many of us know the basic story of Hosea and his unfaithful wife, but we don't often read it in detail the way we do Psalms or the letters of the New Testament. On the surface, Hosea is far from encouraging and, we want to believe, far removed from our every day lives.

Read it again.

Hosea is quite applicable, because like both Gomer the unfaithful wife and the nation of Israel, we wander from God the way an unfaithful spouse wanders from her one true love. God will allow us to go our own way; He isn't into arm-twisting.

But He loves us so much that He never ceases to pursue. Sometimes He throws up a roadblock in the shape of harsh circumstances or heart-breaking reality. Hosea 2:6-7 call this a hedge: "Therefore I will block her path with thorn bushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them."

Why would God do this? He's loving and kind. Maybe He would allow bad things to happen, but He doesn't do it on purpose. Right?

I'm not going to tell you that someone's cancer is a result of their sin. I don't believe that. My own broken body is a result of sin in general, the fact that when sin entered the world, so did death and decay.

But if a person is far from God, living in a way that dishonors God, choosing his or her own way instead of God's way, might that person run into financial troubles or relational conflicts or roadblocks that keep them from pursuing that job opportunity that is not God's will for them? God may put up these roadblocks to help us turn back around, as it says in the latter part of verse 7: "Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’"

God wants only the best for us. He is the best thing we can ever experience or imagine. Therefore, He wants us to know Him, and He'll pursue us relentlessly, always waiting for us to respond. Hosea is not only a book of discipline and warning; Hosea ends with powerful hope. Hosea 14:

Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

God will respond: “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel...Who is wise? Let them realize these things. Who is discerning? Let them understand. The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.

Are you pushing through the weeds today? Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Experience that powerful hope.