On Being Good Soil
The girls have been mulling over the parable of The Sower for the past week. They’ve brought the parable back up in conversation almost daily since we read and talked about Matthew 13:3-9 during Bible study one day. Most of the ladies have been around farming at some point, so the analogies that Jesus makes to scattering the seeds among the various soils makes a lot of sense to them. What doesn’t make sense, and is our main topic of conversation, is how to become good soil and produce a crop.
Most of the girls assessed themselves as the soil with the thorns. Some expressed how they wanted to grow and produce fruit, but the responsibilities and hardships of life create worry within them, which chokes out the fruit and eventually leaves them withered. I was impressed with their honesty.
I’ve been asking myself the same question. Which soil am I? Like the girls, I want to be good soil, but if I’m honest, sometimes I find that I’m not. I know because there’s little to no fruit. Verse 8 says good soil “produces a crop - a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” Why is it that my crop comes in far too shabby, instead of multiplied as the parable talks about?
Yes, I may be doing good things, and it may appear that I’ve got plants growing, but am I allowing my fruit-growing ability to be choked out? Are roots growing deep in the soil? I’m learning that obedience is the deep-rooted plant that fruit grows from. That understanding leaves me asking myself the toughest question: am I cultivating a relationship with the Lord that includes obedience? If so, He’ll multiply the crop.