Monday, February 25, 2008

Rock Gardens & Weed Beds

Most folk think there is something solid about being middle of the road and something bad about being extreme. I can see where in many situations that is wise, but it's anything but when it comes to Christianity. The milquetoast middle is nothing but a muddle. Offered for your consideration: the parable of the sower. The extremes were clear in their result whether for good or bad, whereas the mucky middle had the look, even the promise of fruitfulness, but alas, not the substance. Why? Only by selling out can we achieve what was intended by scattering the gospel seed in the first place. Only a single-minded vision of submitting to what "Christ in us" is attempting to grow can make our lives fruitful in God.

In God, fruitfulness is what counts. For the seed of the Word, for the seed which is the Word, to get anything done in us that he came to do, there has to be singularity in the soil of our hearts. Our soil must be set apart, exclusively, for the growth and fruitfulness of that one seed. It must yield no room nor nutrient for anything else to grow. If our soil is a mixed bag, chunky with rocks, or infested with other kinds of seed, our appearance may seem fine for a time, but over time, our fruitfulness (or fruitlessness) will reveal the unfortunate truth.

Like any farmer planting his fields, when God plants Christ in us, he expects Christ out of us (CICO). For that to happen, nothing can compete with the seed that he's scattered on the soil of our lives. When rocks and weeds compete for the soil with that seed, the seed's growth is stunted and its fruit is nonexistent. God wants an abundant harvest, how can we offer him rock gardens and weed beds?