ploughing

 The other night I was at housegroup and we were talking about suffering as part of a series about transformation and formation.  We listened to someone speaking on a video link and part of what he talked about invollved referencing the parable of the sower.  I cant remember the point the guy on the video was making, but I was suddenly struck with a new understanding of this very familiar parable.

Forgive me if you made this connection decades ago - sometimes Im late to the party 😂  But as I was looking at the path onto which the first lot of seeds were thrown it suddenly occurred to me that in Bible times a path or a road wasn't made with specific materials, it was just something that happened over time by the passage of many many feet all headed in the same direction.  And as I ' saw' the rock hard ground which had been tramped over until it was impenetrable to the seed, I heard the Lord whisper that my ' hard ground' was the way of thinking I have developed over years.  The well worn assumptions.  The unquestioning beliefs.  The ways of rationalising my world.  These are all such well worn paths in my thinking that were God to try to throw some seed there to grow something new He would stand little chance of getting a crop.  

The ploughed field however is the good soil.   But it is land which has been disrupted, turned upside down - literally.  In the context of our housegroup discussion it is perhaps suffering or tragedy or turmoil which puts the cold hard steel into our thinking and churns us up.  Its not comfortable.  Its not easy.   But its how we get the good soil which is then ready to accept the seed and yield a harvest.

At 55 and having been a Christian for decades Im prepared to concede that in places my thinking has become a well trodden path.  Im not sure how I go about taking the road less travelled.  But at least now Im open to the possibility of being challenged.  I might even occasionally admit to being wrong.  Cos let's face it, miracles do happen sometimes. 😄😁😄