Last week, I walked beside our wheat field with my husband and I stopped to snap a picture of a pretty purple flower hidden among the green stalks.

“That’s a weed,” my husband said as he yanked it out by the roots and tossed it aside. Then he explained the blue cornflower is invasive and can destroy a crop by choking out the wheat. Through the week, I’ve removed the blossoms I noticed while walking on the trail.

When I drove by our neighbor’s farm this morning, I noticed the rolling hills of wheat have waves of indigo. It seems the blue cornflower invaded several areas.

Sin can be like that in our lives. Maybe it starts with a simple “white” lie that needs another to support it. We ask ourselves, “Is it really wrong to watch the popular television show?” Or maybe we justify reading that book because a friend recommended it, and after all, she’s a good person.  Bit by bit, we compromise and hardly notice sin is choking us.

As Christians, we have been commanded to go out into the world, but we must not be of the world. My life is not free of sin, but by spending time studying the Bible and in prayer, it’s like yanking the blue cornflower out of the wheat field daily.

The blue cornflower will always be a weed, no matter how pretty, and sin will always be sin, no matter what the world tells us.  Let us strive to live in such a way that others will recognize that we belong to Jesus.

I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in truth; your word is truth.” John 17: 15-17 ESV.