In Jesus’ parable, the sower sowed the word into different types of ground, some along the wayside, some in stony ground, some among thorns, and some in good soil.  Sometimes we read this and try to place ourselves into one of the categories.  We try to decide whether we are the fruitful ground or stony. But isn’t it more likely, that we’re different grounds at different times?

Sometimes we’re on the fringes, by the wayside.  We’re so distracted, it never even takes root, we miss the message altogether.

And sometimes we are the stony place when we’re hearing, or even studying the Word. After we’ve gotten some good revelation, we forget all about it, because we just received a text message, or have Facebook friends we must catch up with, and we never really get to the meditation of the life-changing revelation we just saw.  We had it!  But we lost it because of other interests intruding into our time.

We’re also sometimes thorny.  We’re reading or hearing God’s Word, we’re inspired, but then we come back to what we see as “reality” and must send out resumes in order to find a better job that will pay more, or we must make more sales calls so we can win the trip our company has for a prize. We forget that God is our source, that God supplies all our needs, so instead of looking to Him, we try to figure it out ourselves. We don’t assimilate what we’ve learned into life-practice.

And sometimes, we’re the good ground – eager and ready!  We hear! We’re convinced! We’re attentive to the Word, we’re inspired, and we put the Word into practice.  We live it and demonstrate it.  It’s real to us! We are doers of the Word, and not hearers only.  We make choices according to God’s will, not our own.  We serve God with our whole heart and soul!

–Nancy