Good Ground In Disguise

  Good Ground In Disguise

Mark 4:8

But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

   I read an excerpt from a book by Brian Cavanaugh, a Franciscan priest, who tells a story about when he was in seminary.  He and some friends wanted to plant a small vegetable garden in an empty patch of ground in back of the seminary.  It was an old dirt-covered hard-packed parking lot.  They asked the head of the seminary if they could use a sunny corner of the plot to put the garden in.  The old gentleman looked at the hard-packed dirt and gave permission, saying, 'You're wasting your time. Nothing will ever grow there! But, go ahead if you still want to.''

   They found a pick-ax and a rake and a shovel and raked four inches of stones into neat walls outlining the garden.  One of them swung the pickax and struck what must have been a former refuse area.  It was a gardener's dream:  dark, composted, fertile soil just sitting there waiting to be discovered under that dusty, hard-packed top.  They looked at each other and smiled and said in unison, 'Ah, nothing will grow there.'  Their garden did grow.  They harvested fresh, plump veggies out of it that fall.  What looked dusty and dead on top had really been rich ground for growing.

   I have known some people much like that dusty, hard-packed parking lot.  They looked like unlikely soil to sow the Gospel to.  Yet they have, indeed, received the Gospel with gladness and yielded much fruit.  Worried about who you’re sowing the Gospel to?  Think that person is just a hard-packed, dusty parking lot where nothing will grow?  Worried about spiritual crop failure?  Sow those seeds anyway!  Plant seeds where you can as often as you can.  All you see is the surface; you can’t see what lies just under the surface.  If Brother Cavanaugh and his fellow students had listened to the head of the seminary they would not have enjoyed fresh vegetables that fall.  They would never have had the satisfaction of seeing the tender young plants shoot up through the soil and grow in mature plants. 

   Another story, and I do this from memory, was a patch of ground in back of a neighbor’s house on the dead-end street I grew up on.  They decided to plant a garden in a marshy area of their back yard.  It was thick with weeds and had many small trees growing in random there.  They didn’t have tools to properly prepare the ground so they cultivated what they could and planted their garden in patches.  They grew a small but fruitful garden.  They harvested tomatoes and cukes and potatoes that were big and ripe and good tasting.  Most of the neighbors told them not to bother planting there but they went and planted anyway and their efforts paid off with a good crop.     

   Did you see a dusty patch of ground in your mind when you read this?  Sow seeds there.  Do you see a weed-covered patch of ground?  Sow your seeds there.  Only God can make the seeds grow but they won’t grow if you don’t sow. 

   Don’t expect God to give increase where you haven’t done any work.  “O Lord God, we want more souls to come to our church!”  Well, if you really want that then go plant seeds so God can give us a harvest. 

Stephen Cram                                                                      March 23, 2014                   

Daniel 1:8

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture is from the New King James Version of the Bible.