In May we often find a plant called either wild Honeysuckle or Autumn Olive, depending on whether you ask the locals or look it up on a botany site.  Whatever its proper name, the DNR advises that we should get rid of whenever we see it, because it’s not indigenous to woods, and the plants will take over trees.

However, as it chokes the life out of the trees it produces a lovely scent, and the odor wafting through the woods is sweet and pleasant. There’s a metaphor there somewhere. More than one, in fact. How many sweet, comfortable, and pleasant things do we believe or accept simply because it makes us feel sweet, pleasant, and comfortable to believe them? Meanwhile, these sweet and pleasant falsehoods, like the incense of the green witch in C.S. Lewis’ Silver Chair, fog our thinking and choke out truth. Eradicating such pests, both plants and ideas, isn’t easy.

Some advise that hand pulling of the very young autumn olive plants is possible. In the same way, carefully rooting out the source of false assumptions before they take root is possible, though it does some serious self-knowledge, and then once you've identified the weeds in your life, you have to take time, pay attention, and engage in the mental and spiritual equivalent of backbreaking, stooping labor.  With the invasive autumn olive/wild honeysuckle, burning, cutting and girdling actually encourage vigorous new growth. What does work is handpulling, and also cutting followed by an application of herbicide.

It’s not enough to just cut out false notions and inaccurate assumptions, either. They must be replaced with that ultimate killer of the weeds of the brain, Truth.  In order to apply truth, one must have a good, steady supply of it.  Wisdom helps, too.  Wisdom calls in the streets, and in the markets she raises her voice, according to Proverbs.  According to James, if any of us lack wisdom, we can ask for it.

Going to Malaysia is a big decision, but along the way are countless smaller decisions to be made, some seem important, some don't and sometimes the small ones turn out to matter more than I'd imagined.  What do we pack? Do I take this, buy that now or later when we are in Malaysia?  Will the backpack we've used the last three years hold out another two? Which books do I take in hard-copies, which do I take as e-books, and how can I protect the thousands I have to leave at home? What do I need to do to get the American house ready? What do we need to do to get ourselves read? What do we need to know?  What are we supposed to be doing here and now? Who should we be reaching that we are not?   Am I reading my Bible as much as I should (Wendi confesses- no, not at all).

Would you join us in praying for us to have wisdom and a sense of peace over the decision large and small that we face as we plan our move to Malaysia?