Examining The Dirt...

Friday, January 19th - Matthew 12:46-13:23

As always there's much to think about in this passage and too much to consider in writing.

Soil testing. For years, I've read this passage and thought things like, "I know that I'm growing in my faith, so I know I'm good soil. So and so is going through a pretty thorny patch right now. I wonder what it will take to break through the hardness in so and so..."

But as I consider Jesus' teaching in yesterday's reading about how the words we speak reveal the goodness (or badness) of our hearts, I'm challenged to see this passage differently today. I know that for all the good words I say, there are plenty of bad ones, too. Although the words, themselves, might not be terrible, the words I use often reveal a heart that is far from being as perfect and holy as our heavenly Father is. My words reveal a divided and inconsistent heart.

So today, I'm wondering if the soils mean something more, something more challenging for me. Are we not fields full of soil - even different soils? I know there is good soil in me, because I know that God has grabbed a hold of me and rescued me; I know I desire to know my Savior more and become more like him. But I am also certain I have rocky soil in me, places in my heart and mind, where I still resist what God has for me and fail to understand. I suspect that my field has paths worn by habits, and trampled down by life, where the Gospel struggles to sink in and spring to life. I know I've felt thorns and fear in patches of the field of my life where it's difficult to walk by faith, because the pain convinces me to avoid risk and the threatening fears of life convince me to trust the things I see and pretend to control more than the incredible and competent God who hangs the stars in the sky. And I'm thankful that there is good soil in me that's producing fruit. Still, I wonder if the harvest comes anywhere close to Jesus' most conservative estimate of 30 times - much less 100 times - as much as was planted.

I'm grateful that we have the opportunity to read God's Word, to hear it spoken in sermons, to read your reflections on it in blogs and comments, so that it can continually find its way deeper and deeper into the soil of our lives. I trust that as that happens, God is fertilizing each of us and transforming more and more of who and what we are into good soil, producing crops that bring glory to Him.

So today I'm thankful that we have these words of Jesus. I'm grateful that we have the examples of faithful men and women who have gone before us. And I'm glad that we can walk this road together. I'm trusting that, as we continue on this journey, we'll find fewer rocks and thorns and hardened paths, and more and more places where it's obvious that God is growing life in us.

Let's hear what the Farmer has to say about what kinds of soil He finds in the fields of our lives, and trust Him to plow and fertilize and prune, so that His work in, through, and among us is increasingly fruitful.