Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”
Mark 4:8
Coming from Baltimore, we had good soil. It was dark, it was rich. You could see all sorts of stuff in the soil. There were worms in the soil, doing their worm-thing. You put a tomato plant in the dirt, and it grew. There were all sorts of good stuff in the soil to feed plants. And when it rained, it held moisture that refreshed the plant for many days.
Where we live in central Florida, there is no such thing as good soil. Yes, we sort of have soil, there’s sand beneath our feet, but no farmer in their right mind would ever call it good.
Our sand has no nutrients to feed anything. There are no worms. And when it rains, the water just flows through it, nothing is held back. You put a tomato plant in our dirt and all you’ll get is heartbreak.
So, here we have seed that produced a bumper crop. What’s the difference? The farmer’s the same. The technique’s the same. The time’s the same. The weather’s the same. The seed’s the same
The only difference is the soil. And what’s different about this soil? What’s the “secret sauce” that makes this good soil, good?
Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”
Mark 4:20
The good soil hears and accepts. It does more than just let the vibrations carried through the air into its ears. It takes the word internally and accepts it. The good soil receives it openly. The good soil welcomes it. The good soil personally opens themselves up to the seed and lets it in.
And once in, the seed germinates, it sends up a shoot and sends down roots. It goes up and down at the same time. The stalk grows up towards the light and roots go down into the soil Once the seed starts sending up a shoot, it kept on growing, and growing. It kept coming up and up until that shoot becomes a stalk.
There is something of a dance between the seed and the soil. They work together as a team. They each have their individual roles and parts. As the seed sends down roots, the soil gives up nourishment and moisture. Those roots also anchor the plant, supporting the growth above ground, and giving stability during storms.
As the plant matures, grain starts to appear. That once tiny shoot is now a tall, mature stalk that produces, and produces, and produces. As it keeps on growing up, so does the increasing, and producing.
You never get to the endgame, harvesting, unless both seed and soil are personally involved. And they can’t delegate it to someone or something else. There is no way that a harvest happens unless they both are personally part of the process.
There is no such thing as an instant harvest either. It takes time. There is no app or nutritional supplement that’s going to shortcut the process. There is no button that you can push to hyper speed you to the harvest. There is no secret hack that will jump you to the front of the line. There is no special three-point checklist that will take you down an unknown tunnel to the finish line. There is a process that you can encourage, you can nurture, but you can’t rush.
So, now we’re at the final step, figuring out where you are. Who you are. What kind of soil are you.
You might have a past of being a hard-headed path of a person. You might have had a rocky past. You might have been with lots of thorny people. But, you are right where you are, and the opportunity of a lifetime is right there in front of you. You can start becoming good soil.
You start the good soil journey by opening yourself and your heart up to God. Today is the day to start breaking up the patterns of your path that has made God’s word and voice just bounce off. Today is the day to break through your hard and rocky personality that’s just below the surface, letting God into those places you hide. Today is the day to start pulling away from the thorny influences that just suck the life out of you.
Now is the time to start the process of moving to being good soil and a child of God. He’s right there, waiting for you. While we were pulling and running away from him, He’s never moved. He’s been there all the time, with open arms.
It may sound hard, and it is. It may sound scary, and it is. It may sound exciting, and so it is. Like that seed that falls in good soil, it just keeps growing, changing, producing seed for the rest of its life.
So, start growing now.
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