Devotion.al

  • Enduring Soil

    Enduring Soil

    4 Now while a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from every city, he said in a parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path, were trampled on, and birds from the sky ate them up. 6 Others fell on stony ground, and as soon as they came up, they dried up because they had no moisture. 7 Others fell among thorn bushes, and the thorn bushes grew with them and choked them. 8 But others fell on good soil, and when they came up, they produced 100 times as much as was planted.” As he said this, he called out, “Let the person who has ears to , listen!”

    9 Then his disciples began to him what this parable meant. 10 So he said, “You have been given knowledge about the secrets of the . But to others they are given in parables, so that

    ‘they might look but not see,
        and they might listen but not understand.’”

    11 “Now this is what the parable means. The seed is God’s . 12 The ones on the path are the people who listen, but then the Devil comes and takes the word away from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 The ones on the stony ground are the people who joyfully welcome the word when they hear it. But since they don’t have any roots, they believe for a while, but in a time of they fall away. 14 The ones that fell among the thorn bushes are the people who listen, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, wealth, and pleasures of life, and their fruit doesn’t mature. 15 But the ones on the good soil are the people who hear the word but also hold on to it with good and honest hearts, producing a crop through endurance.”

    Luke 8:4–15 ISV

    Reading the Scriptures (i.e., The Bible) daily continues to bring my joy. It fills some of my curiosity, and often drives my researching desires. As a habit, I read a different translation each year for my daily readings (versus sermon prep). This year it is the ISV.

    Part of my rationale is that I believe it helps me see the same Scriptures differently. Whether it’s phrasing or vocabulary or punctuation, something gets triggered (in a good way) in my brain.

    I’ve read the Parable of the Sower many times. I’ve preached on it. Heard plenty of sermons on it. Verse 15 hit me today.

    What struck me this time, in particular, was “endurance”. When you go back and re-read the parable, endurance makes sense. It may indeed be the point of the entire parable (not saying it is).

    Endurance

    Endurance and resiliency are the new corporate buzz words coming out of COVID lockdowns and remote work. The church has started to focus on them, too. It’s not a bad thing. Developing resilience might actually make the world a better place.

    Perhaps, instead of feeling attacked or belittled, instead…we endure. The good soil is the soil that endures.

    In church, we’ll often talk about the “good soil”. What is the “good” soil? We’ll talk about the Christian that overcomes adversity. We’ll talk about the one that doesn’t contain thorns and briars. We’ll about the one that doesn’t contain stones.

    Even when we talk about the good soil, we don’t often focus on the endurance. It’s not the soil’s fertility that is the source. It is the endurance.

    We don’t like to talk about endurance, because generally that comes along with difficulty. We see on the internet (and even, gasp, in bookstores) the latest book with the latest vital skill set that we must have today. There is the latest shortcut (with and without AI), so that we can get what ever it is done faster, and so we can minimize the time we experience difficulty.

    In other words, we avoid requiring endurance.

    Training

    Athelete’s train. Anyone who regularly participates in activity trains. Training produces endurance. We seem to get that when it comes to physicality. We actually do get it mentally with our focus on education. Even that, though, is often about regurgitation and not thinking. Rote and regurgitation do not produce mental endurance.

    We are truly awful about endurance when it comes to emotional, and (especially) spiritual. I’m still trying to figure out what happend with the emotional part. I don’t think that the “stiff upper lip” (British) or stoic (Germanic) tendencies and patterns were always healthy. Often they led to people burying their feelings. So, for those that claim “those were the days”…I disagree.

    It’s easy to blame the internet (currently) or television (previously), but is that really true? Have we really forgotten how to healthily emotionally endure, or did we just have yet another mask we wore?

    We have mental health counselors as a growing field (need far outweighs practitioners). I do think they are necessary because we have done such a poor job of being trained and training others.

    This also pours over into spiritual endurance. This is not about spiritual abuse, but just the straightforward character to endure trials, perceived unanswered prayer, and the horrors of a fallen world, without one’s being crushed.

    Just Believe

    Just believe is very similar to rote and regurgitational mental learning. It does not produce endurance. We struggle with endurance. I know I do. It’s okay to acknowledge that you struggle with endurance.

    The beauty of the current cultural emphasis on endurance (or resilience) is that the community of faith (i.e., the church universal) can talk about it, too. Think about it. We have the ability to faithfully talk about God and an enduring faith, while the world is also struggling with endurance. There’s the open door…will you walk through it?

    Prayer

    God, we know that we are called to endure. We see throughout the Scriptures you provided examples of enduring faith from flawed beings just like us. We know through the witness of , that you understand our struggles, including our struggle to endure. Holy Spirit, please help us be the enduring soil that produces faith in ourselves and others. Amen.

  • Hanging on by a strand

    Hanging on by a strand

    Seth Godin recently posted the following…

    There are three strands, present for most everyone:

    (sometimes seen as status, or the appearance of status)

    Safety (survival and of mind)

    Meaning ( and the path )

    The changes in our media structure, public health and economy have pushed some people to overdo one or the other and perhaps ignore a third. When a social network finds your button and presses it over and over, it’s hard to resist.

    New cultural forces catch on because they hit on one or more of these. And politics is understood through this lens as well.

    See the braid and it’s a lot easier to figure out why we might be stressed.

    “The Braid Out of Balance”, Seth Godin

    This brought to mind a passage in Ecclesiastes

    Then I turned to re-examine something else that is pointless on earth: Consider someone who is alone, having neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his work, and he is never satisfied with wealth. “So for whom do I work,” he asks, “and deprive myself of pleasure?” This, too, is pointless and a terrible tragedy.

    Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor. If they stumble, the first will lift up his friend—but woe to anyone who is alone when he falls and there is no one to help him get up. Again, if two lie close together, they will keep warm, but how can only one stay warm? If someone attacks one of them, the two of them together will resist. Furthermore, the tri-braided cord is not soon broken.

    Ecclesiastes 4:7–12 (ISV)

    The long-standing “go it alone” mentality of US cultural history is still very much present, despite much of the US culture going through upheavals. The braid (Godin) or cord (Ecclesiastes) is a good image to use when we think of our lives, and the inputs we have, whether power, safety, and meaning (Godin) or friends and companions (Ecclesiastes).

    Bad Math

    One of the things one learns about ropes (or cords or braids), is that it is possible to use them where one strand breaks as it bears the brunt of the load. The other two strands then have to bear an additional 50% that were not planned or expected.

    We may all understand giving 100%. Yet, most of us understand that we are just not capable of doing that all the time (we do have to rest). When that 1 strand is broken, the load is now 150%. Again, do-able for a short amount of time.

    It is when the last strand is broken that we experience a brutal reality of 300%.

    No one can sustain that.

    Strong Strand

    As I look around me, I see people within and without the faith in Christ1 who are leaning on something other than Jesus. Within the faith, in particular, the concern is those whose faith appears (for I cannot see their heart) to be more on a particular iteration of the faith (not-so-essential theology), rather than Jesus. Even more concerning is when their iteration goes hand-in-hand with a particular political perspective (and this is not only those on the so-called right—or extreme right—of the political spectrum).

    As much as I am trying to elevate Jesus, much of our knowledge about Jesus is written in the (i.e., The Bible). That, too, may result in another extreme, though, and that is only looking at the Scriptures in isolation. If we (as an ) are the only reader, contemplators, and interpreters of the Scriptures, we will likely (as history repeatedly shows) get ourselves in trouble.

    Not that reading it together often seems much better, for the record.

    If you are looking for a faith community to join in, or have one, always keep hold loosely. I don’t mean waver. I mean don’t hold so tightly onto your that you are unable to hear the other branches of Christianity honestly (rather than listening to debate), and even other faith traditions all together (including secularism and atheism).

    Open Hand

    I know someone will read the above and try to say that the other Christian traditions or other faiths will lead people astray. It might be true. However, if we are unable to engage them, then if person gets one strand of their faith (Christian or not) broken, just as the opening quote, everything may well unravel.

    “I have decided to follow Jesus,” is a refrain from an old hymn, and it is my truth. Following Jesus means that I regularly have to wrestle with my faith, my faith tradition (Wesleyan-Holiness-Arminian), my political leanings and tendencies, my experiences. It also means I have to welcome the uncomfortableness of wrestling with the faith, (faith and cultural) traditions, political leanings and tendencies, and experiences of others.

    Growth and Strength

    I have one caveat to the strand/cord/rope illustration. Instead of a rope that breaks and frays over time, I would say that what makes up the rope is more like a muscle. If you work it (in harmony with the other strands), it gets stronger. If you don’t work it, it rots in place.

    1For clarity, faith in Jesus Christ as defined via the Apostles’ Creed, Creed of Nicaea, Nicene Creed, Chalcedonian Creed, Athanasian Creed.

  • Know Yourself. Know Your Idol.

    Know Yourself. Know Your Idol.

    The two latest tragedies that are in front of me are the school shooting in Texas, and the abuse scandal unraveling in another Christian denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention. Both are incredibly painful. They should be. They are another example of how humanity has fallen and how determined, it seems, humanity is to stay mired there.

    Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.

    1 John 5:21, New Translation

    It was this verse, however, that strikes me as the core issue…idols. Whether one is a Christian, in a Christian , or not a Christian at all, we each have idols or, more importantly, something that is so close to being an idol that it may not be one spiritually (though that may be debatable), but functionally is.

    I speak from ignorance regarding the shooter at the school tragedy, and deliberately so. Reading what pundits and talking heads have to say, even first-person testimonies aren’t particularly helpful and may be more damaging in regard to a solution. From a ‘s standpoint, I see pain. Whether it is generational pain, cultural pain, and/or personal pain, it seems to me that someone was in such spiritual and emotional pain that they reacted in a seemingly inhumane way.

    He responded inhumanely, but he responded far too humanly.

    One of the words I’ve seen applied to him, the accused SBC abusers, and the abuse enablers (in the cases of both shooter and abusers) is inhumane. That can be a misleading term. is a moral stance that is, in the US at least, based upon cultural and supposedly Judeo-Christian frameworks. Humane from a Christian standpoint can best be framed by using Charles Sheldon’s words (culturally popularized in the ’90s), What Would Do?

    On the other hand, (i.e., less the “e”) is different. Frankly, both tragedies are emblematic of human-ness. Yes, both were inhumane, as are we. I bring this , as we often respond to inhumane as if it were the same as being inhuman, or not human. This is a grave danger for us, as when we remove the “e”, we tend to make out to be less than we are. This leads to tirades against others and the hardening of hearts.

    I’m convinced that the has not lost its . I’m equally convinced that we have lost the power of the Gospel. We are agents, it seems, of becoming more human and less humane.

    In What’s Wrong with the World, G.K. Chesterton wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” I might amend Chesterton and say, “it was found difficult and abandoned.”

    Each of us has an issue that ignites us. Each of us has a pain that motivates or chains us. These can be our idols. Pray with me that God frees us from them all and that we become more like Jesus (humane) and less a sinner (human).

  • Movie About a Christian

    Movie About a Christian

    Read: Luke 9:18–50

    One of the reasons I love and appreciate the concept of the “ year” is that we are often confronted by the hard passages, especially those that often make no sense to our post-enlightenment (i.e., science- and data-driven) minds. This is, as you probably inferred, one of those days.

    Today is Sunday. It is this strange day that we “” a strange experience that defies our everyday experience.

    Luke’s “bookends” of the Transfiguration are: before, Peter’s declaration of Jesus as Messiah, Jesus’s subsequent command to be silent, and Jesus’ of his suffering road, and his prophesy of for and by those that follow him; after, a healing and Jesus’ rhetorical question of the unbelieving character of the Jews (and, honestly, most of humanity). With what most of us believe about God (God has a plan) and the Scriptures (the Scriptures help us interpret the Scriptures), these seemingly unrelated events before and after the Transfiguration should affect how we view the Transfiguration.

    If we view the Transfiguration and its bookends as a “movie” of the Christian , it disturbingly makes sense. “Who do YOU say I am,” Jesus asks. Peter responds, “the Messiah.” Sounds like a person accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior (salvation).

    Jesus then says, “deny yourself. Daily sacrifice yourself. The world will demand you deny me and be ashamed of me.” One of the first struggles of a new believer (and long-time believers, too) is the realization that accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is only the beginning. Life-giving hardship is the Christian life.

    The Transfiguration is (in the context of our “movie”), then, like the Holiness Movement concept of the Second Work of Grace (i.e., Entire in Church of the Nazarene verbiage). We are “transfigured”—not by our will (other than a will to self-sacrifice and submission to the will of God)—by the will and work of God to be “transfigured” into the likeness of our holy God, and particularly in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

    In A Plain Account of Christian Perfection, John Wesley (who “codified” the conception of Entire Sanctification) noted, we are to rarely, if ever, to of our experience of this “transfiguration”. This is similar to the actions of Peter, James, and John who kept silent about their experience. They shared it later, at the right time and to the right people, to reinforce the place of Jesus Christ in their experience of and with God.

    After this life-changing experience, then we come back to the real world (coming down the mountain) and face demands for miracles, healings, along with the unbelief of the world, and often even our own disbelief at the miracles of God. This disbelief is often not merely about “miracles”, but our transformation by God that we didn’t “earn”. We could even go so far as to say that the “unbelieving” performers of miracles (Luke 9:49–50) are like our scientists and doctors who perform “miracles” that could not possibly be imagined in the days of Jesus.

    We also have the sad, but real, argument between those who claim to follow Jesus about who is better (Luke 9:46–48). Those arguments can follow theological lines, church lines (ecclesiology), spiritual formation lines (holiness), political lines, gifting lines, and so on. This is the object lesson for denominations (even the earliest split resulting in Orthodox and Roman Catholic, long before Protestants), church splits, and church departures.

    When we read the Scriptures and find passages that we feel conflict with other Scriptures, or our experiences and understandings, perhaps it is times like that when we can best view ourselves through the lens of God.

    May God who Transfigures us poor and needy people into those that glow and reflect the glorious and holy of Jesus Christ. Amen.

  • How to Come Back

    How to Come Back

    1 Corinthians 11:17–33

    It’s almost over it seems. The time of being masked and constrained nears its end. On the other hand, already another strain of COVID is showing up, but the reality is that we, as an entire world, are at our limits.

    It seems great that we’re almost there, except that we really have a lot of things that we need to work through, and many of them may be far harder than COVID, masks, inoculations, and social distancing. The wounds that have opened over the last 2 years are far deeper, far more scarred, and far more gangrenous than many of us were prepared for.

    As we come back, it is far too easy and tempting to attempt to go back to old habits and practices and forget what has just happened and the mirror that we saw ourselves in. We, as Christians…we, as the …cannot just come back.

    Many of us will “come back” to church and be unwilling to be uncomfortable. The world has trained us to be exactly like the Corinthians…divided. And, even worse, we may be more divided than the culture at large, which should terrify and condemn us.

    Paul was speaking on how the rich self-segregated from the poor. Instead of common , it was a one. Instead of a “love feast” celebrating unity, Communion (the memorial of Christ’s and resurrection!) shined the light on the division, and it was then unworthy of the that Jesus had bestowed upon them.

    While we may not take Communion separately in the church, there is no question that the church is divided. Whether it is by culture, country, skin color, language, socio-economic class, or even denomination, the church is divided.

    The that Jesus granted the world the right to judge regarding love (John 13:35), desperately needs to love one another. As we learn to love each other, looking beyond politics, borders, skin color, language, power, weakness, , shame, wealth, it will be hard.

    Learning to love beyond ourselves isn’t optional. For those that follow Jesus, it is an of loving obedience.

    ※Reflection※

    As you prepare to go/come back to normal, is the “old” normal really what Jesus wants from you?

    What is one thing that you will do different as the situation settles into the new way of things?

    ※Prayer※

    Jesus, the craziness of these last 2 years may feel like forever, and, yet, in your eyes, it was only a . Grant us the grace and peace and love to come as your disciples to show that your love can truly transform the human heart, and from the human heart transform the world. Amen.

  • Future Tensely

    Future Tensely

    Psalm 126; Isaiah 40:1-11; Romans 8:22-25

    Have you realized that Advent is weird? I Advent, don’t get me wrong. However, the world has done a successful job of retraining us on what Advent is all about.

    Partially, I think, this is because of the image of an unthreatening baby with lambs, other baby animals, with the inferred warm smiles of (an exhausted) Mary and Joseph. This is a fairly safe form of evangelism, and it’s easy to put out little statues in our homes and on our lawns.

    We, the modern , have become very comfortable with this form of Advent, which creates this weird situation of celebrating the Advent of the birth of Jesus, which already happened. By simple definition, advent is about an event that is coming. Except Jesus came already, and Jesus went already.

    Yet, we treat this as more than a simple birthday. This is also more than the annual “discussion” of which Christmas tradition is really of pagan origin and the dispute/defense of those traditions (either way). The problem is that when we talk about the Advent of Christ, it isn’t just about the birth of Jesus. This is where it gets uncomfortable, including for the Western Church.

    The Advent Season is about the event of Jesus being born. It is also about the Advent of Christ’s return. It’s that whole return thing that gets uncomfortable.

    Today’s passages are about the past. They are also about the future. Psalm 126:1 talks about the past of God. We can equate this to the birth of Jesus (for the sake of example, not making a theological tie-in).

    Psalm 126:4 is about the of those fortunes lost. And that’s important. God provided previously. The blessings were “lost”. So, the request is that the blessings be restored. We, too, are in that in between time. The time between blessings.

    We look back at the blessings provided and look to the blessings to come (the return of Christ). Yet, contrary to the sentimental Jesus of the manger (which was not sentimental in reality), the coming of Christ is not foretold as being comfortable.

    For both who have declared Christ their Lord and Savior, and for those who don’t, the Day of the Lord always comes at a cost. Some who thought they were saved may discover they are not. The pain of losing ones and the pangs of the world will be unpleasant. So, it makes sense that we don’t talk about it when we want to talk about baby Jesus.

    Except, the true is that this life is not the . The pain, misery, injustice, degradation, , war, pestilence, poverty, slavery that is all around is proof that all is not well. The Advent of baby Jesus didn’t solve that. Only the next Advent will solve it.

    Come, Lord Jesus, Come!

  • Seeing Christ In The Lives of Others

    Romans 12:16–21

    As part of our college ministry many years ago, we asked our college students to come up with their mission statement. It was coached in a business/organization language; it should have been better phrased as a Rule of Life.

    Mine was: Seeing Christ in the Lives of .

    Yes, the title was my little slogan. As of late, it has come to mind regularly. Often it is part of my response to a myriad of things that I am seeing and hearing about all around, whether it be personal interactions or even Tweets (posts on the Twitter platform).

    There seems to be a predilection to be wounded and hurt first (and responding that way).

    Hurt people, hurt people

    This saying from my time in Celebrate Recovery continues to resonate with me. God’s timing for teaching me this (right before being hugely wounded) is not lost on me.

    As we watch the world around us, perhaps you need to this, too.

    Hurt and see

    You might be hurting now. I know I am. In fact, the reason I’m sharing these thoughts with you is that I, too, am hurting.

    Reflecting on ‘s words to the Romans should provide some to and a framework for us.

    Too often, people take these verses and go right to Paul’s quotation of Proverbs 25:21–22. Heading there first is an indication that we are responding out of hurt and/or first.

    Instead, perhaps we ought to focus on, “…show respect for what everyone else believes is good.” Many may with, “That excuses their behavior!” No, it doesn’t. It shows respect for God.

    Another response I have witnessed and experienced is, “that’s not Scriptural.” Sometimes that is the choice of a style of music or a style of dress. Sometimes it truly is something called out by the as bad.

    Grace Before

    In the Wesleyan- tradition, we have the theological construct of prevenient . This is the grace that goes before the people even act. In particular, it is God’s grace that goes before we have a clue.

    Perhaps the turmoil in the world, especially as the —just as the culture—adapts to massive changes in everything, ought to be perceived with grace, “…show[ing] respect for what everyone else believes is good.” For the record, this is hard.

    Much of the language being used by the world is very judgemental, of course, the church has much the same problem. We are called to be present in the world, but not to be of it. As we hold onto the things of old or embrace the new, looking for Christ in the lives of others may well be an answer.

    ※Reflection※

    • How might Christ be present in the current social advocacy you oppose? How might God’s grace be going before in that situation?
    • Why might it be important to “see” Jesus in the lives of others, especially those that do not know Jesus?
  • A Movement: Of Priest and Temple

    A Movement: Of Priest and Temple

    1 Peter 2:1–12

    We, self-included, often focus on “…But you are a generation, a royal priesthood…” (1 Peter 2:9). This is a very Protestant focus. However, it is not solely one, as both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox also focus on it.

    Much of the focus is from the “pulpit”. In other words, the pastor/priest is talking to the believers listening that they, too, are part of the priesthood of all believers. Hence, why the second half of verse 9 is as important as the first half, “…that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of into His marvelous light…”

    There is a reason for the “priesthood of all believers.” It is to be the priesthood for the world. In a number of traditions, the pastor/priest has a certain role, and that is to equip the priesthood of all believers to “…proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

    What is helpful here is to go back a few verses to “…you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5, NKJV)

    In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul tells the Corinthians that they are a temple to God. With Peter’s words, too, we come away with this strange duality. We are both temple and priest. Yes, it is symbolism.

    On the other hand, for a people far more reverent and religious than ours, this is significant.

    As a temple, first, we are to be clean. Unless your house, for example, is miraculous, you have to clean it regularly. We “track” the world into our physical house. Whether it’s sweeping, vacuuming, scrubbing, or something more, we must clean our homes.

    How much more so do we track the world into ourselves, a temple of God? So, therefore, we must clean ourselves as befitting a temple of God. There are plenty of ways that clean the temple. Personally, I have found the practice of Bible reading, prayer, and small group (in my case, 3 other guys spread across the country) to be the best cleansing (doesn’t make it easy). You may find other practices to be better. Just make sure the cleaning gets done regularly.

    This isn’t just an “inside” job, either. The outside aspect of the temple is important, too. The world sees the outside of the temple. The peculiarity of being the temple is that we are very aware of the crevices that aren’t clean on the inside. If we focus too much on the inside, however, the outside is a mess. However, if we (like so many of us do) focus too much on the outside, the temple comes crumbling down, for the internal structure cannot hold up the facade (or false front) shown to the world, and we then dishonor God by our fallen temple.

    This is not about tattoos, piercings, dyed hair, or something like that. This is about how we treat , care for others, or even love others. This is about the behaviors we allow ourselves to do, and allow others to do. As the culture has made us all too aware, we have not done a particularly good job regarding the behaviors of others.

    Nor can we forget about being “the priest”. You may have experienced this, too, where someone says that all they need to do is worship God in their car or online or even at church and that’s all that matters. It’s as if the priestly aspect of worshipping God with song is the “goal” of being a priest.

    If we were to look at one of the tasks of priests (the ones in the temple), we could draw that conclusion. Except…they weren’t the only priests. The majority of priests (from an Old Testament point of view) didn’t work at the temple. They were among the people.

    Much of the Christian view has been twisted (with significant reason) to view that the entirety of the priestly class was the leadership that as described in the New Testament that followed and harassed and challenged Jesus. Yet, while the Scribes and the Pharisees were the loud obnoxious ones we read about, we know that they weren’t the only ones out there (think of John the Baptist’s dad).

    The priestly isn’t only the roles and tasks at temple that need doing. It is the and guiding of the world. With even a little bit of introspection, we know that we need the of, and to be changed by, God to do either of those well.

    ※Reflection※

    • What does it mean for you to be a priest?
    • What are some of the ways that you are a temple to and of God?
    • How does you being a priest affect your understanding of also being a temple?

    ※Prayer※

    God, grant us the lamp of love that never grows dim,
    that it may shine in us and warm our hearts,
    light to others through our love for them,
    by its brightness provide a vision of the holy city where the true and inextinguishable light of Jesus Christ our Lord shines. Amen.
    — a modified prayer of Columbanus

Devotion.al

Enduring Soil

4 Now while a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from every city, he said in a parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path, were trampled on, and birds from the sky ate them up. 6 Others fell on stony ground, and as soon as they came up, they dried up because they had no moisture. 7 Others fell among thorn bushes, and the thorn bushes grew with them and choked them. 8 But others fell on good soil, and when they came up, they produced 100 times as much as was planted.” As he said this, he called out, “Let the person who has ears to hear, listen!”

9 Then his disciples began to ask him what this parable meant. 10 So he said, “You have been given knowledge about the secrets of the . But to others they are given in parables, so that

‘they might look but not see,
    and they might listen but not understand.’”

11 “Now this is what the parable means. The seed is God’s . 12 The ones on the path are the people who listen, but then the Devil comes and takes the word away from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 The ones on the stony ground are the people who joyfully welcome the word when they hear it. But since they don’t have any roots, they believe for a while, but in a time of testing they fall away. 14 The ones that fell among the thorn bushes are the people who listen, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, wealth, and pleasures of , and their fruit doesn’t mature. 15 But the ones on the good soil are the people who hear the word but also hold on to it with good and honest hearts, producing a crop through endurance.”

Luke 8:4–15 ISV

Reading the Scriptures (i.e., The Bible) daily continues to bring my joy. It fills some of my curiosity, and often drives my researching desires. As a habit, I read a different translation each year for my daily readings (versus sermon prep). This year it is the ISV.

Part of my rationale is that I believe it helps me see the same Scriptures differently. Whether it’s phrasing or vocabulary or punctuation, something gets triggered (in a good way) in my brain.

I’ve read the Parable of the Sower many times. I’ve preached on it. Heard plenty of sermons on it. Verse 15 hit me today.

What struck me this time, in particular, was “endurance”. When you go back and re-read the parable, endurance makes sense. It may indeed be the point of the entire parable (not saying it is).

Endurance

Endurance and resiliency are the new corporate buzz words coming out of COVID lockdowns and remote work. The has started to focus on them, too. It’s not a bad thing. Developing resilience might actually make the world a better place.

Perhaps, instead of feeling attacked or belittled, instead…we endure. The good soil is the soil that endures.

In church, we’ll often talk about the “good soil”. What is the “good” soil? We’ll talk about the Christian that overcomes adversity. We’ll talk about the one that doesn’t contain thorns and briars. We’ll about the one that doesn’t contain stones.

Even when we talk about the good soil, we don’t often focus on the endurance. It’s not the soil’s fertility that is the source. It is the endurance.

We don’t like to talk about endurance, because generally that comes along with difficulty. We see on the internet (and even, gasp, in bookstores) the latest book with the latest vital skill set that we must have today. There is the latest shortcut (with and without AI), so that we can get what ever it is done faster, and so we can minimize the time we experience difficulty.

In other words, we avoid requiring endurance.

Training

Athelete’s train. Anyone who regularly participates in activity trains. Training produces endurance. We seem to get that when it comes to physicality. We actually do get it mentally with our focus on education. Even that, though, is often about regurgitation and not thinking. Rote and regurgitation do not produce mental endurance.

We are truly awful about endurance when it comes to emotional, and (especially) spiritual. I’m still trying to figure out what happend with the emotional part. I don’t think that the “stiff upper lip” (British) or stoic (Germanic) tendencies and patterns were always healthy. Often they led to people burying their feelings. So, for those that claim “those were the days”…I .

It’s easy to blame the internet (currently) or television (previously), but is that really true? Have we really forgotten how to healthily emotionally endure, or did we just have yet another mask we wore?

We have mental health counselors as a growing field (need far outweighs practitioners). I do think they are necessary because we have done such a poor job of being trained and training others.

This also pours over into spiritual endurance. This is not about spiritual abuse, but just the straightforward character to endure trials, perceived unanswered , and the horrors of a fallen world, without one’s being crushed.

Just Believe

Just believe is very similar to rote and regurgitational mental learning. It does not produce endurance. We struggle with endurance. I know I do. It’s okay to acknowledge that you struggle with endurance.

The beauty of the current cultural emphasis on endurance (or resilience) is that the of faith (i.e., the church universal) can talk about it, too. Think about it. We have the ability to faithfully talk about God and an enduring faith, while the world is also struggling with endurance. There’s the open door…will you walk through it?

Prayer

God, we know that we are called to endure. We see throughout the Scriptures you provided examples of enduring faith from flawed human beings just like us. We know through the witness of Jesus, that you understand our struggles, including our struggle to endure. Holy Spirit, please help us be the enduring soil that produces faith in ourselves and others. Amen.