Jesus said:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
(Mark 4:1-9)
In truth, this parable use to be confusing to me–then I’d just read it over and over again and still I felt like Jesus was saying to me, where are your EARS, child? There were elements of it I understood and other elements, that at the time, were a bit too deep for me to comprehend fully.
A seed is something that is supposed to take root and give life—given the right environmental conditions and origin from which the seed comes.
We don’t have much information about the farmer, but I’d say he was a Good man and had good seeds in his hand:
- Some seeds had no chance to take root, they fell along the path and the birds ate them.
There are some of us who have had good things sown into us, but before we got a chance to really wrap our minds, spirits,souls, and hearts around it to truly hear and potentially take root on what it was, it was snatached away through deception, defeat, distraction, depression,fear, and/or confusion. In short, through spiritual warfare.
2. Other seeds fell on rocky and shallow soil, so they immediately took root—too fast (with little to no understanding), so their roots were shallow and could not withstand the heat of the sun before dying off.
I would liken this to Acts 19:13-15. How many of us have been very overzealous with little to no understanding of the very fundamental aspects of God’s light and the spiritual things therein? So when the hard questions were asked of you, when faced with adversity, when going through a season of trials—-you bail on God and all the promises he has for you in your life because your strength was merely superficial, even egotistical, and not planted deeply within the soil of his goodness, mercy, and his eternal promises on your life (Proverbs 4). The spiritual ways of God run depths that are not of this physical world, and there is no room for shallowness if you are to finish the race with victory.
3. Other seeds fall among thorns—which compete for food, sun, and other nutrients—-so the seed ultimately did not survive as they were beat out amongst competitors.
So these are the seeds that are DECENTLY rooted have grown among the best of them, but unfortunately, with the worst of them also—rough environments/background/circumstances. The situation that immediately comes to my mind regarding this are kids from the ghetto and poor neighborhoods, 3rd world countries—the hard knock life. Good seeds were sown for some and it becomes a struggle of fighting vs not having to fight—and not in the way that you think. In an environment were there are mostly weeds, thistles, and thorns (where evil/wrong prevails)–doing the right thing, being the stand up kid, and maintaining that mentality is VERY hard because you are fighting negative influences left and right, at home, at school, at the grocery story, in your MIND. That’s why MOST of these kids do not make it out or simply become products of their environment–there are only, unfortunately, the exceptions that do. There are also those who come from well to do families but struggle to stay above the mental and spiritual influence for various reasons–sometimes the bigotry and internal failures (weeds, thorns, and thistle ) lie within the family as well.
4. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced very well, These are the seeds that are victorious and steadfast and most importantly—productive in the Lord; to whom much is GIVEN, much is expected of these individuals. (Luke 12:48). In as much as you may not want to hear this, I’m going to tell it to you anyway—if you are a believer in God and Christ rather you are well off or NOT, you should be standing firm in his word, you should be doing EVERYTHING you can towards strengthening the crop of God—financially, spiritually, mentally, and physically. You have been laid on good soil with no competition, no birds as distractions, and no shallow soil IN YOUR YOUTH—God Expects you to come out heavy handed and victorious!
BLUEBERRY | MOON 