Horrible, disgusting mushrooms have found a home in my yard.

This, after hiring a landscaping crew to come in four times a year to do whatever landscapers do to keep our grass green and somewhat weed-free.

These mushrooms prevent me from keeping up with my neighbor, the one to the south who last year sodded his yard and installed an irrigation system. Without fail, sprinklers come on in a watering pattern that keeps his grass worthy of a Better Homes and Garden cover photo.

I have zero chance since I am our sprinkler system. I purchased two sprinklers for the days in which it did not rain, and while joined to their 100-ft. hoses, I drag them around the yard, spending hours a week trying to keep my grass green and happy

You can imagine my horror this year when I returned from Mexico to find unwanted demon-guests (aka mushrooms) leeching off the decaying nutrients in my soil.

When no local business offered a solution, I made phone calls to experts and was told that the shrooms no doubt had thrived because of the rain.

“As soon as the sun comes out and the rain stops, they will go away.” Whining to experts has accomplished nothing.

I have spiked the area around the little imps and filled it with liquid detergent. Two gallons of Dawn later, the parasites had turned black and stank horribly. (Stink, stank, stunk…yes, that is correct.

) But then they resurrected in another area, including the edge of my neighbor’s pristine yard, and I felt responsible.

No doubt they had spread their underground mushroom spore-filled gills into Never-Never-Neighbor-Land and now might overtake the entire neighborhood.

I have dug them up and bagged them for disposal. I have doused them with a vinegar/water solution and have treated them with non-soluble fertilizer.

Still, their bothersome bouquets proliferate.

It’s no coincidence that this morning’s Bible reading is in Romans where Paul addresses our sin nature. Several chapters are spent on the entanglement of sin and how easily we continue doing what we should not do instead of understanding that as Christians, we are to move toward holiness.

You know, instead of continuing to feed our souls on rot.

Sin comes natural to us, and like mushrooms, if unchecked, works its way out in thoughts, words, and deeds. If we do not kill the decay upon which our sin is relying for nourishment, it can take over our lives.

The apostle Paul was direct when asked if it’s okay to ignore sin (since we are covered by grace). He used three words to answer: “By no means!” We have to do everything we can to correct all ways we do not reflect Jesus Christ.

In other words, just like the death of the mushrooms is the Sun, the death of our sin is dependent on the Son of God.

I just need to spend as much time with Him as I do the annoying pests in our ground.