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I
called Denny, a local farmer and asked him if it was too late to plant my
wildflower seeds. His candid response, “No father, we haven’t planted our corn
yet , it’s a good time to plant your seeds.” There are several parables about
sowers in the Gospels and the sower has a job to do. And sower's job is to go
out and sow the seed. So does the sower worry about, you know, if the seed will
grow? Yes. Does the sower worry about, you know, if there'll be a storm? Yes.
Does the sower worry about, you know, if there will be a rich harvest? Yes. But
God essentially says, "You know, don't worry about things you have no
control over, put your energy into those things you are responsible for.” We do
this all the time. We make ourselves responsible for things we're not actually
responsible for, meanwhile, neglecting things that need our attention.
We worry about things we can't control and we use that as an excuse for not actually doing the things we are in fact actually responsible for. God says, "Hey, be mindful of your own personal responsibility. Your job's to sow. Let me worry about what sort of dirt it falls in. Let me worry about the weather patterns. Let me worry about what the harvest will be. You focus on the one thing you can actually affect,"because that's when you have the most effect." When we affect the things we can actually affect, that's when we live in our power, that's when we live connected to God, that's when we're most impactful. It's when we start focusing on things we can't actually affect, we can't influence. We can't change that. You know, we become like a leaky tire. We just lose all the energy, all the air just sucked out of our lives. And so what's God saying to us today? Focus on sowing the seed. Bring the message to as many people as possible.
Share the message with as many people as possible. You know, some of them will respond to it. Some of them won't. That's life, it might not be their time. That's okay. Just keep sowing the seed. There’s another parable about the mustard seed, you know, which is the smallest seed and yet becomes the greatest of all the trees, shrubs, etc. There's a line I think we sort of graze over it sometimes or slip past it. Jesus says, "Yet when the mustard seed is sown, it grows up and becomes the greatest of all the shrubs and puts forth large branches so that the birds of the air can make their nests in its shade."
The goodness of your life is like those large branches. It brings comfort to other people. It brings shade to the birds. It brings shade, a place for them to make their nests. Your goodness comforts people in their lives. Life is a long, weary journey and sometimes in the midst of that long, weary journey all people need is to spend a few minutes in the shade of your goodness.
To spend a few minutes in the shade of your goodness can completely transform their day. It can restore their hope in humanity. It can restore their hope in their own lives. And so what's Jesus' saying to us, he's saying, "Allow me to grow you. Allow me to give you big branches. Allow me to fill you with my goodness so that you can go out and share that goodness with weary people in this weary world and restore their hope in themselves, their lives and humanity."
Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that when we see people who are spent and weary, let them spend some time in the shade of our goodness.
