Mark
4
“Words of Wisdom’
We are a people of stories. Whether those stories are: history,
literature, folk tales, or gossip, we tell stories, share stories, and hear
stories. Our lives are shaped by
stories. The stories of our own life
memories, the stories of other people’s memories, and stories that are created
out of various peoples’ lives. Some
stories can be painful and destructive, while other stories can be
inspirational and compassionate. Every
once in awhile, a special nugget of wisdom falls upon us and makes a deep
impact upon our lives. In the book: Walking the Bible, the writer shares that the
stories of faith are stories that give life.
God is creating, God is forming, God is calling a people into being and
then encouraging to grow in ways that reflect God’s story of life.
In
today’s parable, seed is being thrown and lands all over the place. It almost seems a little reckless of the
farmer to not sow the seed just in the field.
Seed, a metaphor for the word of God, or in our lives today:
stories. Stories of God, stories of
people, stories of lives that celebrate the love and goodness of being God’s
people. But, we don’t all hear these
stories the same way, we don’t all celebrate these stories the same way, we don’t
all remember these stories the same way.
For some, we challenge them and push them away, for others we tuck them
away as a part of our childhood, and for others, they land deep within
ourselves, guiding our daily living.
I
always find it interesting when you sit down with a group of people and ask
them their favorite Bible story, or passage of scripture. Very rarely, do people share the same
story. Each seed, each story, has fallen
into the soil of our lives in different ways.
Each of us has the hard path, the rocky soil, the weeds, and the good
soil within us. When something falls
within the good soil of our being, it impacts us, it stays with us, it grows
within us and it becomes wisdom.
Wisdom, a special gift of words or actions that can give
life meaning and purpose, it can inspire us to pursue a certain area of study
and find a job in a specific field of interest.
Wisdom, it can get deep down inside of us and pull us in a direction we
never thought we would head towards. On this special day, where we honor
our Fathers and our graduates, both pertain to wisdom. As parents, fathers desire to provide for
their children. They work hard so that
the family has a home, meals, clothes, and can participate in extra curricular
activities. As they nurture, stories are
told and stories are made and along the way, children pick up insights from
their fathers in how to navigate this world in which we live. It could be a strong work ethic, it could be
that of faith, it could be focused on being a good student or athlete, it could
be on giving what you are doing your all.
As students, a
plethora of teachings has been bestowed upon you. Some is remembered just for the test, some is
not remembered at all, and some connects deeply into your being staying with
you for the long hall. Perhaps it was a
science teacher that inspired you to be involved with environmental issues, or
perhaps it was an English teacher that bestowed upon you the love of writing,
or the math teaching that open up the world of numbers and equations that will
focus you towards accounting. Or a coach
that has encouraged you to continue with a sport. Throughout our lives, we are exposed to so
much, so many stories, so much learning, so much knowledge, and each of us
absorbs these nuggets of wisdom differently.
What inspires one student or child, bounces off the other and withers
away.
There is a farmer or a father or a teacher that has seeds
to sow. And the Farmer or the Father or
the teacher throws the seed out into the soil, upon the children or the
students. Some falls on the hard soil
and is eaten by the birds. Sometimes
there is just too much information being given that you cannot absorb it
all. Or sometimes we are just not ready
to a level of learning. I’ve gone back over
some old notes from classes and what made no sense to me at all when I was 18
now makes sense. Or I’ll re-read a book
that I just could not get through a few years ago and wonder why I didn’t like
it the first time through. Our inner
hard paths can soften and change over time.
What seems like a reckless farmer might not be so reckless after
all. What might seem like a hard path in
one point in our lives just might be fertile soil in years to come.
Some of
the seed falls on the rocky path and finds just enough soil to begin to grow
but quickly dries out. How many times
does that happen? We quickly get excited
about something but we just fizzle out almost as quickly as we start. “Hey dad, will you teach me to throw a
football, or hit a baseball, or ride my bike?”
And then five minutes later, “let’s do something else.” Attention spans are hard to navigate in
life.
Other
seed falls upon the thorns and gets chocked.
Maybe we just have too much going on right now and other things get in
the way. We are good at overscheduling
ourselves, how do I fit dance, and soccer, and theater and my studies and
friends all into the mix? We get way out
of balance and often times something we love gets chocked because we just can’t
do it all. When I first started college
I was overwhelmed with my schedule and trying to make friends and study.
I went
to a workshop on learning to create a healthy balance in my life. We made a circle and divided it into
sections. I can’t remember the exact
sections, but as many stories of our lives change a bit, this is how I remember
it: spiritual, emotional/social,
physical, and intellectual. We were then
asked to divide the circle up in how we felt our lives currently were. Mine was almost completely divided in half
with physical and intellectual. I was
either in class, studying or on the soccer field. We were then asked to divide a circle up with
how we would like it to look. My spiritual,
and emotional/social part of my life was being chocked up. Maybe not by weeds, but by my other
activities. We were then encourage to
think about how to create new space in our lives for the other parts of our
whole being. Could we do that? Maybe we were going to have to let go of
something in order to let something else thrive. Although I still have not mastered this, it
was a nugget of wisdom that has stayed with me and I continually go back to it
to try and keep myself as whole as I can.
And
other seed fell upon the good soil were it could grow and yield a healthy
harvest. This is the area that just
brings results. When children are
inspired by a father’s teaching, a teacher’s subject matter, or hopefully, God’s
scripture calling us to live a faithful life of compassion and purpose as we
embrace stories of life and allow them to produce a full harvest of fruit
within us. Sometimes the teachings, the
guidance, the advice, the way in which we want our children to embrace this
life doesn’t seem to take root. And that
is part of why we need to create positive habits and rituals in our lives. We need to till the soil, till the hard path,
pull at the weeds, and continually throw out the seeds. God understands the messiness of life. God understands that we are not always ready
to hear God’s teachings, stories of faith, or embrace words of wisdom. But that does not stop God from tossing out
the seed. The seed is always being
thrown, recklessly into the world, recklessly into our lives, because God is
hopeful, God is abundant, and God does not give up on us, ever. And there are some really special teachers,
and coaches and parents out there that do the same thing. They keep sowing love into their families,
into their communities, and into the greater world. And we thank them for their work, for it does
make a difference and sometimes it takes years before the seed germinates in
the soil.
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