Has there been a particular season of your life when you felt especially close to God? A time when your faith truly motivated your attitude and actions, when you were in the spiritual “zone” so to speak? Think about that season for a moment. What was happening in your life? How were your friends supporting you on your journey? What do you remember about what you were doing with your time? Where was your focus?
In Mark’s Gospel (chapter 4), Jesus is referenced speaking about the kingdom of God being like a seed that, though small, grows into something quite large. Jesus was probably referring to the broader view of the impact of the kingdom on the world – that is spreads quickly, surprisingly, and has the potential to grow very large and be very productive. On a personal, individual level, this gives a glimpse of faith’s potential in life – God can do incredible things is and through us. In this view, faith makes a massive impact on our life. A person experiencing this kind of faith finds it pretty mind-blowing.
How would you rate your faith’s vitality today? Nearly lifeless? Brief, shallow moments of God’s presence? Stuck in a rut – you haven’t experienced fresh wind for quite some time? Or growing and thriving and producing more and more life for yourself and others?
There is reason why we experience faith at varying levels of vitality, and why some people take off when they hear the news of Christ while others seem indifferent. Jesus told his disciples that it all had to do with the soil in which the kingdom seed is planted (Mark 4:1-20). This was important for the disciples to hear. Not just for themselves, but to give them insight as to why their message would be received or not in the coming years. Jesus identified four types of soil. The hard-packed path offers no chance for the seed to take root – birds come and eat it before it has a chance. Rocky soil allows for the seed to get started, but roots can’t develop, and when the heat of the sun comes, the plant withers and dies. Weed or thorn ridden soil allows the seed to develop, but the plant gets choked by its competition and doesn’t thrive. Good soil allows the seed to really take root, and develops a mind-blowing harvest.
Could it be that if your faith seems pretty lifeless it is because the environment will not allow it to live? I have counseled many people who have felt that God was quite distant – maybe nonexistent. Upon hearing about their lives, I am usually not surprised. Except for a casual prayer during the day, there is no though or time given their faith. The seed is just left to sit out in the open. Faith is dead. I remember a time in my youth when I was so busy with everything but God that God really didn’t have a chance to break in. Maybe you had no choice up to this point – your parents or peers didn’t allow you any other option, and you didn’t know any better. But now you know: you have the capacity to change your soil. Want a better faith experience? Trade up from your hard-packed, lifeless soil to the good stuff.
If you find yourself experiencing an occasional spiritual high followed by long periods of drought, you may have rocky soil. I personally experienced this when I discovered the power of worship in connecting me up with God. I would get a serious spiritual buzz from worship. Naturally, I would look for opportunities to lose myself in worship services. But after awhile, I couldn’t get my fix any more, and I wasn’t terribly interested in hearing the teaching. It’s like I enjoyed the buzz, but then it faded. Jesus’ audience had folks like me in the crowd. They came to get their fix – see a miracle or two, maybe catch and exorcism. But when Jesus began to address how God wanted to change their lives with the Way, they walked. Are you a user like that? Are you only into God for the buzz? If so, you’ll find yourself perennially on the faith roller coaster, with moments of sheer ecstasy followed by long periods of feeling lost and out of touch. Oh, and your life won’t really be any better. Neither will your impact on the world around you. The good news is that you have a choice, now that you are aware, of what kind of soil you are going to provide for your faith. Why not upgrade to some “Grade A” soil?
If you can see that you are stuck in your faith, it’s probably because something is choking out your faith. Your passion to follow Jesus has been compromised by competing concerns. Money often makes the top ten list here. Work. Relationships. What others think. Unexamined theology. Politics. Sex. Apathy. Indulgence. Self-centeredness. But enough about me – what’s on your list? The good news is that you have a choice. You can choose to get rid of the competing weeds and thorns which are strangling your faith. Why not get a little dirty and give your faith room to flourish?
The goal, of course, is to provide our faith some good soil in which to take root and prosper. With this kind of environment comes big things from that kingdom seed. But how do you get such soil?
Miracle Gro. Go to Home Depot and buy a bag and call it good. You’re welcome. We’re done here.
If only it were that easy. The fact is that good soil doesn’t just happen. Even if there is good dirt to begin with, you don’t just walk into a field and throw seed around. You have to cultivate the soil, which takes time and energy: worthwhile effort. You are also going to need some fertilizer. Once you work the fertilizer into the soil, churning it up pretty good, you’ll be about ready to sow the seed.
Where do you get fertilizer? Good news, here: you already have it in abundance, and you will never run out for the rest of your life. It’s not really free, but you’re buying it with every day of your life whether you like it or not. Life is not perfect. We all do really stupid things on a regular basis. Sometimes people do really stupid things pointed in our direction. All of this creates loads and loads of “organic matter” that we are left to deal with. I am referring, of course, to manure, poop, fecal matter, crap, etc. “Organic matter” sounds so smart, though, doesn’t it?
What we do with our “organic matter”makes all the difference to our soil. If we choose to ignore it, it will just lay there like a landmine in a pasture, waiting for some innocent, inattentive farmer or hiker to step in it. When we ignore or deny our “organic matter”, it doesn’t add to our lives. It just sits there, stinking things up around it, and stinking up those who step in it. When we ignore the hurts of life, the disappointments, the tragedies, the let downs, the shattered dreams, the injustices, the betrayals, the aches and pains, etc., they do us no good. They do us harm, really, because we have to walk around those areas carefully – as do others who know where our “organic matter” is – all to avoid the stink.
But if we choose, we can see the “organic matter” in our lives for what it is: fertilizer. We can work it out and work it into our lives. This is cultivation. We acknowledge it. We address it. We process it. We learn from it. We gain value from it. We make it work for us. We help others when they find themselves dealing with similar crap. The “organic matter”, which was once just a stinky pile of steaming mess we wanted to flush or bury (deny), is transformed into a key contributor to beauty in our lives.
I do not believe that God orchestrates “organic matter’s” entrance in our lives. But I have found, in my own life, that when I ask God to help me understand my “organic matter” and grow from it, and when I choose to let God use my “organic matter” for the benefit of others, beauty replaces the ugliness. This is why good soil is so good. It represents a grand reversal. Instead of being forever defined by our “organic matter”, the “organic matter” gets cultivated into something which allows beauty to emerge.
What kind of soil represents your life? Want to trade up? Your hope just may be in how you deal with your “organic matter”…
May God bless you and your “organic matter”. Amen!
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