“But
he that received seed into the good ground … “
(Mt 13:23, KJV)
I
think God likes to have a good time with me. I don’t mean like hanging out,
shooting the breeze and going places together. Not that God wouldn’t enjoy that
kind of stuff, it just that I’m not all that much fun to hang out with. Maybe a
better way of saying it would be that sometimes I think God likes to have a
good time at my expense.
You
know how some people are pretty good at doing some unusual thing? I think most,
if not all, of us have at least one thing we’re pretty good at. Well, I can get
my foot in my mouth without much effort. Now the folks listening may not know I
have done it, but God does. Let me talk long enough and I will set a trap with
my mouth that my foot can’t get out of.
One
night at a friend’s house, someone asked me to read aloud the parable of the
sower. I did that and when I had finished he asked me ”What kind of soil is
your heart?” Without missing a beat I answered “Good soil.”
I
was driving home later, feeling pretty good. It had been a good evening and I
felt that I had handled myself rather well. I’m driving along and God says “See
that field?” I look beside me and there is a big field. “If it was good soil
and I planted a lot of seeds in it, how much fruit would there be?” Again not
missing a beat, I answered “A lot of fruit Lord.”
Now,
I know that some of you are already seeing that I am fixing to have another
life changing moment. I never saw it coming. After a moment of silence, I hear
”I have planted a lot of seed in your heart.” Wow, it hit me like a ton of
bricks.
It
wasn’t so much in reaction to what was said, so much as to what had been implied. “I have planted a lot of seed in
your heart” was what was said. “And
there’s not much fruit” was what was implied. Well, that pretty much sucked the
wind out of my sails, and there I was repenting again.
Two
more thoughts. First of all, we don’t have as many people fooled as we think we
do. Secondly, isn’t it amazing how much God can say without hardly saying anything?
