We got a new driveway in a matter of a few hours … and it didn’t cost us anything other that hard work and time.

At our cottage, our driveway is made of white gravel stones. When the light shines on those white stones it really looks great.

Over the years, however, weeds have somehow managed to creep up through the gravel and it has ruined the look altogether. 

So we’ve employed different methods to get rid of the weeds. 

We were told years ago that if we put some kind of cattle salt down on the gravel every year that would keep the weeds from growing. 

We did that for one or two years but then we noticed that a little tree beside the driveway had shrivelled up and died. Another tree looked like it was almost gone, and even a cedar shrub showed signs that it was dieting. 

I don’t know if it was the salt or not but we stopped using it immediately and, though we lost that one tree, the other tree survived with just one dead spot. The shrub is doing alright.  

The next method we tried was pulling the weeds that grew. But this didn’t do anything more than mask the problem for a time. 

If you don’t get at the roots, the weeds are still lurking just under the surface.

So after ten years we have been losing the battle of the weeds on our driveway.

I thought that maybe we needed another load of gravel to spread around, but I’m glad I never acted on that thought because what we found was truly amazing. 

Lily was outside picking some of the weeds out of the driveway when our neighbour saw her and told her his solution – he rakes his driveway.

He brought out the rake he uses and showed her what he does. 

I thought that because the weeds came up so easily that we had a thin layer of gravel covering the dirt underneath. Not so. We started to rake the gravel and after raking a good three or more inches deep, it was still all gravel. 

… Which, on the side, says something about weeds. Weeds can grow in the most extreme environments! They can work their way through three or four inches of hard packed gravel to get to sunlight. 

I wish the grass on our lawn worked that hard to provide us with a green carpet instead of the sparse, sandy sprouts that grow there.

It turns out that, when you rake down deep into a gravel driveway, you rake up not just the tops of the weeds but the roots as well. 

And, as you evenly spread the gravel back out over the driveway, it stays above the dirt, looking all fluffed up and sifted, like you just got a new load of gravel. 

It’s going to take a little while for the driveway to pack down again, but more importantly it will take a long while for those weeds to find their way through the gravel again. 

Here’s the thing: When you notice a sin or an unwanted trait that seems to be persistently presenting itself in your life, simply asking God for forgiveness is not enough. You need to dig deeper to uncover the root, why it’s persistent, and where it came from. When you get to the bottom of that sin or trait, then with God’s help you can keep it from showing up in your life.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What persistent sin do you need to dig up in order to be free of it?