Planting seeds

By Joe Holloway, Encourager Coach at The Landing, Celebrate Recovery, Fellowship Bible Church, Rogers  4/24/19
There is a popular parable in Mark chapter 4 about the sower: 

“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty-fold and sixty-fold and a hundred-fold.” 

As with most passages in the Bible, there is a lot packed into that little space! In my life, I was blessed that many people came to sow seeds.

Early on in my life, some of those seeds clearly "fell along the path" and they were eaten up. For example, my senior year of high school, I went to youth group just about every Wednesday. Not on Sunday, just on Wednesday. Why? Well, that's where the cute girls were. I really didn't let anything I heard on Wednesday night penetrate my heart, that would have surely distracted me from the cute girls! A little later in my life, clearly some "fell among the thorns" and were choked by work, stress, distractions (maybe a video game or ten). I certainly didn't want the thorns choking out my walk, but really wasn't doing much to prevent that. About 10 years ago, I found myself in the "good soil". The "good soil" is so much better!

I am so thankful that multiple people in my life took the time to scatter the seed. I wonder how some of them felt, pouring into some teenage boy who is.... let's just say not focused on the Word. As an aside, I fully expect at least 1 school teacher to be completely shocked to find me in heaven, maybe a couple. It can be frustrating to pour into someones life and not see any harvest for the work. What's that saying, "you can't want their recovery more than they do", yep that's it.

Continuing on in the book of Mark, 4:26-27 says "And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how." God's timing is not our timing, we are to obediently spread His word and then sleep and rise the next day to do it again. Do you think those school teachers of mine will think of this verse when they see me? Or a paraphrase at least, "wow, that's Joe. The seed sprouted, how did that happen?"

One of the reasons I volunteer in The Landing at Celebrate Recovery is because of all of those people that poured into my life when I was younger.  There are some rough nights where at the end of the night I feel like none of the students were paying any attention and I may have just managed to barely keep them entertained for a couple hours, nothing more. Keeping my story in mind helps me remember that some nights I'm just planting seeds, the harvest comes later. 

As you know, this isn't just in student ministry. Sometimes it happens in friendships, where a good friend has decided to make a bad choice and there's nothing you can do to talk them out of it. Maybe it's a sponsee that has decided to quit step study because that inventory thing is hard. Maybe it's an accountability partner who has had a relapse or setback and stops returning your calls and just drops off the map. In these situations, we need to remember that we are not called to do it all, we are just called to do our part. Love on them, spread God's truth, and then pray that some of it takes hold. It may take 20 years to sprout, but compared to eternity 20 years is really not that long!

One of my favorite stories from the Landing was several years ago when a student started coming who was openly a non-believer. (He gave me permission to share the story, but I'm still going to leave out his name and details for anonymity). You see, the only reason he was coming is because it was something he was permitted to do, got him out of the house on a Friday night.  His first night, in his introduction, he started with "I don't believe any of this, I hope that doesn't offend anyone" and almost glared at the rest of us in group, looking for someone to react. We didn't. He came back, in fact he came back just about every week for several months. After the first couple times, his introduction became less of a test of us, looking for us to react, and settled into him just stating that he didn't believe. He seemed to enjoy his time each Friday night and even started to participate really well in group. After about 4 months, his introduction changed to "I'm not sure what I believe", then "I'm trying to figure out this Jesus thing", and then one week (to my complete surprise) "I'm a brand new believer in Jesus Christ". I admit, I reacted a little to that. You see, he kept coming because he felt safe. We kept scattering seed and not getting discouraged when it didn't sprout 5 seconds later.

We do our part, and let God do His. 

 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time 

we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." 

 -Galations 6:9 NIV

Have a great week forever family.

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