Soil season

26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4:26-29 

It is one of life's mysteries. New life springs up seemingly by itself, from a miniscule seed. I listened to a sermon on these verses (see link below), and it seemed to sum up this season I find myself in. As I near the end of one year here in Surin, it seems like so much has happened, my processing machine is still catching up... yet there are almost no visible results. Maybe that is what the seed feels like when it has been buried in the ground. 

"It takes faith to sow, and faith to reap, but what takes most faith is to stay buried in the soil of uncertainty, and keep growing - to believe that the purpose is still working out, even when the process is invisible". (Steven Furtick) I can certainly attest to this truth. I have had much experience in scattering, and in harvesting. Those stages are fun, exciting, there is a lot to write home about. But what about when you're in the soil stage? To the seed, it feels like death. All is dark, nothing seems to be happening, nothing can be done to speed it up. For the more 'driven' seeds like me, this is unbearable! You mean you want me to do nothing? Pray and rest and wait? God's time? WHAT?! Can I sign on to a different program? 

Yet, there can be no harvest without the soil stage. In this stage, the seed discovers the beauty of divine design. Turns out, the seed is well provided for and well protected. The seed consists of 3 parts - an embryonic plant, stored food and a protective seed coat. All it needs has been given already. It still needs water, but it is helpless to provide this itself. This need is met from above. The seed coat protects it from all kinds of damage - physical, temperature related and water. In fact what looks like nothing and feels like death is actually a bulletproof bunker. It is a densely packed nutrient bomb, exploding with life. 

For a driven seed like me, my biggest challenge in the soil stage is my involvement. When divine design means a wait,  He has His reasons and I must learn to respect them. I know I am not alone in wanting to speed things up, take back control. 

Waiting however, doesn't mean we stop scattering seed. Satan doesn't take days off, and neither does the Holy Spirit. I love how James Fraser put it, "As long as it is day, the people of God need to be up and doing to the limit of the strength which God supplies. On the other hand, we cannot fret souls into the Kingdom of Heaven. The seedlings God had planted would grow better under His open sky than under our feverish effort."

Our challenge as people of faith is to synchronise our faith with God's schedule. Indeed, the seed is still on schedule! 

(For the full sermon by Steven Furtick, from which most of these thoughts are taken, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GMK4fVnUUQ )