Almost one year ago, my wife and I plus our dog moved to a new home. This once beautiful large lot on the edge of town had become overgrown with bushes, dead trees, and huge wild roses.

I have been spending months cleaning out dead trees, garbage, and weeds.

Much of this work only requires brawn and not too much thinking. One day, I had the idea to talk to God about my plans for the property; I needed wisdom.

One of my winter jobs was to remove a very large raccoon nest; at the same time, I needed to fill a low area on our land.

I felt like God was saying, don’t burn it, use it in the low area.

Ha, how come I didn’t think of that?

Like I said, I’m good at moving the junk, just not thinking about it.

Then spring came, and I could not put off the large paved driveway with all the cracks in it any longer.

I got several pails of cold patch pothole filler and many tubes of crack filler, on sale, of course.

I sort of read the instructions as much as any man would, I got this.

A number of holes and cracks had grass and weeds growing in them, and the instruction said to remove the roots?

So I pull out whatever I could grab and ran a steel blade through the roots, making a salad out of what remained.

I then put the filler into the cracks and hammered it down, really firm. I thought the problem was solved.

After a few days, little blades of grass and dandelions began to break through the cracks in the pavement.

How does a small tender plant stem, like grass, push pavement and caulking out of the way and emerge from the crack?

That’s when I believed God began to speak to me about a deep spiritual truth.

The weeds, even though they were broken off, mashed with metal, and covered in noxious goop, will still grow if they have two things.

First, their roots must reach healthy soil deep under the driveway.

Second, their fragile stems must be able to ‘push’ their way up through the brokenness and get life from the sun.

We humans at times experience the enemy trying to poison our minds with things like bitterness, because of life’s brokenness.

In that place of blackness and having so much broken off us (dreams/hopes), we wonder if we will ever see daylight again.

We only need two things to crawl out of the black ooze and move forward.

First, we need to put down strong roots in His word. Only a healthy diet of God’s living Word will detoxify us from life’s brokenness.

“Remember the word to your servant, upon which you have caused me to hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has given me life. (Proverbs 119:49-50 NKJ)

Secondly, we must press forward and follow the Son. His light is our life.

Just like the weeds in my driveway, there is a great struggle to push through the brokenness and goop until they burst into the light.

The Apostle Paul writes:

“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14 NKJ)

The Greek word used for ‘press’ means to pursue, follow after, and press forward.

Just like my driveway weeds, pushing past all that darkness is hard work.

Strange as it sounds, driveway weeds and broken people have much in common.

At times, you have been run over, trampled upon, had nasty things dumped on you, and the darkness has covered you.

To thrive, we must have our roots firmly in His Word, and then push through the darkness and bitterness, by raising our hearts and hands to the sun, I mean Son.