Seeds of the Spirit

Quick recap on the parable of the sower: A sower went out to sow, some seeds fell by the wayside, some fell among stony ground, some fell among thorns, and some fell in good soil. As children of God with the light of Christ and the influence of the Spirit, we every day receive promptings to make our lives and the world around us better. These promptings come from the Holy Ghost, whether it’s to go to the gym or to stop losing our temper or to pull over and help the car that broke down on the side of the road. Like the seed that fell by the wayside, some of the promptings we are never even aware of. We’re too self absorbed, too caught up in our own heads, too hard of heart. We’ve been burned one time too many and we’re convinced that the world is a cruel and uncaring place and there’s nothing we can do to change it and we ourselves our wretched and miserable creatures, doomed and cursed to a nasty, brutish, short life with no one coming to help or save us. Some of the promptings fall among stony ground. We may have the idea that we are going to start going to the gym again. We have these fanciful and groundless ideas that going to the gym is going to be easy and there will be no struggle and in just a couple of days we’ll have the physique of a superhero without ever getting sore or tired or frustrated. But then when going to the gym is so very hard, and we wake up after the first day and can’t move any of our muscles we convince ourselves that this can’t have been a very good idea after all and even if we would like to be healthier, it is not worth the pain and frustration. Seeds that fall among stony ground are like those impulses that we have to do good and we actually give it a try, but really our whole heart is not in it and we are filled with doubts and fears and we’re more than half convinced that while doing and being better would be nice, it probably isn’t for us and we can prove ourselves right after one half-hearted and half-assed attempt which is doomed to fail because we are unwilling to give more than an inch of our hearts to the attempt. And some seeds fell among thorns. So often in life we are filled with this vision, this goal, this dream of making our life and the world better. We’re going to go back to school, or start our own business. We’re filled with this vision and we actually start to do the work and things are changing for the better. But all of these little thorns start popping up, all of these little excuses, things that seem important and feel urgent but are really just distractions from our one true vision. Making our lives and those of the people around us better requires an open mind and an open heart, it requires full and unflinching commitment, it requires us to weed out early and often any and all distractions that will keep us from our goal. If we will come to the Lord with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, with real intent and with faith in Christ, He will show us what single most important thing we personally can do to make the world a better place. He will help us to remove whatever stones of doubt and fear and anxiety are keeping us from fully committing ourselves. He will help us to cut down and burn away any and all distractions that keep us from our goal. In short, He will help us make of our minds and our hearts good soil for the seeds of the promptings of the Spirit to take root and grow and bear fruit, even the fruit which is precious above all, the Love of God.