My Battle With Trumpet Vines

Several years ago, I was given a trumpet vine (or hummingbird vine) to plant in my garden.  I knew nothing about trumpet vines except they produced a pretty orange flower and hummingbirds love them.  So, I planted it in my flower bed.  It soon took everything over and started to choke out everything around it.  I have done everything to get rid of this menace.  I have pulled and dug to the roots of every new sprout, then sit back in smug satisfaction that this time, I have won.  The trumpet vine is gone.  Then, a few days later, I find another new sprout.  And the battle begins anew.

This spring, I went really radical.  I dug up the whole bed, with the exception of my irises, which were getting ready to bloom.  I divided all of my other flowers, carefully inspecting each root ball for any sign of the trumpet vine, and moved the "clean" flowers to a newly prepared bed.  I then dug halfway to China, on my hands and knees, with a small shovel and got rid of every remaining root I could find.  Today, one week after my last inspection, thinking I have a "weed-free" bed, I find a thriving new vine, already about 18" long!  What is it going to take to have this nasty thing gone??!!

As I was attacking this thing again today, it occurred to me that I have a lot of figurative trumpet vines in the flower garden of my life, too.  There are nasty, invasive, noxious weeds that I have allowed to grow in my life and removing them takes a lot of hard work.  My personal weeds are things like insecurity, worry, jealousy, judgmentalism, cynicism, fear and a few others.  I constantly have to battle them.  I have found scripture to be an effective tool, a spiritual shovel.  I have also, at times, transplanted myself.  I spent 2 years working for a company that was full of gossip, back-stabbing and ladder-climbing.  I kept the "clean flowers", the training and new skills I learned, and left behind the invasive, choking people and culture of that place and moved to a new company.  I have also transplanted myself to a new church.  I learned the hard way that just because there is a cross on the building does not mean that God is alive in the congregation.  Once again, I kept the "clean flowers", my desire to be close to God, and transplanted myself to a place where I truly feel God's presence in the people.

The good news is that I now recognize these vines before they are in full bloom.  I have found that they are much easier to pull while the roots are still small.  If even a fragment of the root remains, the thing will grow back.  The same is true with my figurative vines...I now recognize these ugly aspects of my character as soon as they start to sprout, so I can get to work much sooner on digging those toxic feelings and behaviors out of my life's garden.  I suspect that my battle with both types of vines will continue for some time.  Little pieces of those roots lie just below the surface, waiting to sprout.  But, they aren't choking out the beauty anymore.  That is progress.