In the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, Jesus tells a story of a man who had planted a field of wheat, only for an enemy to sow seeds of tare among the wheat. When the servants asked if they should try to uproot all of the tares, the master said that this wouldn't work because they might pull out as much wheat as tares. Rather, he said, “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:30). Sometimes in life we find ourselves metaphorically with a field of wheat that has been sown through with tares and we know the tares are there and we have been forbidden from trying to remove them. In a lot of cases these tares are innate weaknesses or other intractable obstacles or difficulties that are beyond our power to remove even if we weren't inclined to listen to the counsel of the Master. But if we can't try to remove the tares, we can still choose to do something that can be just as deadly to the wheat. We might decide to slacken our efforts to cultivate and grow the wheat, or actively hinder any such growth in any way that we can. We are so loath to waste any time or effort on the tares that we are willing to let the wheat wither and die by not bothering to water or look after any of the field at all. Wouldn't it be better to just scrap this harvest and write it off as a loss and get ourselves ready for a brand new, shiny, tare-free field next season? We might be convinced that our field is mostly tares and almost no wheat, and we may even be right. But we can't tell the difference between the wheat and the tares until it's almost time for the harvest. What if we're wrong? What if the field is more wheat than we thought? Even if it's not, we are better off focusing on doing the best we can with the field we've got, rather than letting the whole field die just because we're worried that it's not as perfect as we would like it to be. The more times we jump in and take care of the field in front of us, the better we will be at growing both wheat and tares, and eventually the better we will be at telling the difference between the two. We should never delay building up our good qualities and talents just because we still find weaknesses and flaws within ourselves along the way. We have to let both grow together if we want to grow anything at all.
