Kudzu Farmers

 The Folly of Kudzu 

Is there anyone who has never heard of Kudzu?  I wonder if we have really learned its lesson for our own lives.

Kudzu was imported in the 1920’s to control soil erosion in the South.  It’s quickly growing vines and massive root system made it an outstanding candidate to get the job done.  In fact, it was too good.  It stopped soil erosion, but overgrew everything else!  To be clear, entire hillsides were taken over and vanished under its canopy. It wiped out all other vegetation—including trees; abandoned barns and homes were swallowed alive.  Kudzu became The Blob for the environment.  

 

Now let’s pull the meaning out of this.  How often do we try quick fixes in our lives which end up running completely counter to our interests?  Barbara Tuchman, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning historian, wrote The March of Folly.  How often do we jump in to fix a problem and end up in quick sand that swallows us alive?  That’s the March of Folly, traced in political systems (Viet Nam, Afghanistan), environmental engineering (DDT, introduction of wolves) and of course the self-help fads (crash diets, pain-killers).  

 

I saw this bumper sticker driving through East Tennessee.  In a way, aren’t we all Kudzu famers, growing our lives with quick fixes that won’t hold up as the foundation for our lives.  Look back over your life?  What are the foundational stones that you have used?  We know the rock that holds us up.  let me suggest in many cases it is not we ourselves, but the gift of other lives who have become a living part of us--even after they pass on.  When we forget what goes into our lives and holds us up, the temptation is all too great jump to quick fixes instead of long term healthy growth. 

 Jesus the teacher reminded people with simple, common sense wisdom how to build their lives. Whatever you do, for God’s sake and yours—use rock!  

  

24 ‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. ²⁵The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. ²⁶And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ²⁷The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell—and great was its fall!’   Matthew 7:24-26.

What do you build your life upon—what makes up its foundation?  One thing we know.  Kudzu won’t cut it—and it is next to impossible to cut it out once it takes root and takes over.