Good Soil

I’ve been pondering lately how people can hear the same information, or the same piece of music, for instance, and get totally different things from it.  We comprehend concepts, works of art, or literature, on different levels, perhaps due to our background, education, or life experiences.  For example, I think back to my introduction to the recording studio and the process involved in making a track come together.  After I had heard how instruments and voices are added, layer upon layer, I began to listen to music differently, hearing each instrument more distinctly and thinking about how it was mixed into the whole.

People go to church and absorb the same message, the same music, and some are moved, while others remain stone cold, indifferent.  We can’t underestimate the Holy Spirit’s role in revealing truth to us and drawing us to God, but our own free will and engagement of the heart and mind certainly plays a role in how we connect to worship experiences.

 In Mark 4, Jesus tells the parable of the Sower and seed falling on different types of ground.  In his story, a Sower went out to sow.  The first seed fell on the path, and the birds come and devoured it.  Other seed fell on rocky ground where there was not much soil, and it immediately sprang up but was scorched by the heat, since it had no root and it withered away.  Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.  Finally some of the seeds fell into good soil, and produced grain, yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. 

He then had to explain the parable to the disciples, who were sometimes slow to understand.  He told them (paraphrasing), the Sower sows the Word.  For the ones on the path, Satan comes and immediately takes away the word.  The ones on rocky ground receive the Word with joy when they first hear it, but they have no root.  They endure for a little while but when challenges come, they immediately fall away.  The ones among the thorns hear the word, but the cares of the world – their desires for riches and other things- choke the word, and it is not fruitful.  But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty fold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.

Where the seed falls would appear to be, in the main, a metaphor for the heart of an individual.  Do we come to worship and approach Bible study with an open heart, and an attitude of humility? Is your heart and mine a place where the Word can flourish and grow in a medium of love, kindness, and grace, or are our hearts closed up to new life, perhaps because of bitterness or pride?

The condition of the heart must be right to receive the Word, but the environment, which includes people and places, also plays a role.  Are we around people who help us cultivate “good soil?” Are the places we go and the activities we involve ourselves in, helping us to grow? We must be careful about who and what we let into our inner circle, and whether or not they help us to grow in the Word, and live out the things we learn, so we can produce the fruit that is pleasing to the Lord. 

Receiving the Word is not just for our own sakes, or our own personal fulfillment, but just like the seed in the parable, it’s meant to produce results in us.  Ultimately if it bears no fruit, it is a wasted seed. 

Hebrews 4:12 says, “…the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.”  It does its work in and through us. 

Maybe for some reading this, you don’t even have “the seed” yet – you are not in a place where you seek to receive the Word.  Or maybe you see yourself in one of the scenarios above, where the trials or pleasures of the world distract and prevent you from focusing on the more important thing. 

Sometimes we need to take stock and evaluate our lives and make changes if necessary.  We can be intentional about creating an environment where the Word can be sown and cultivated, so we can be fruitful people, fully alive and growing in Him. 

“The glory of God is man fully alive.” 
St Irenaeus
 “Gloria enim Dei vivens homo, vita autem hominis visio Dei”