The Untold Story…continued

 

The whole reason for the untold story yesterday in the parable of the sower was because of a conversation I had with a co-worker.  During our conversation I was being cynical and pessimistic and complaining about people who go to church, listen to the word, and then do nothing.  I complained about how the church is producing these types of people left and right, but not producing people who are going out and producing a harvest beyond their wildest dreams.  Of course he is very optimistic and shared with me, that even the seed eaten by the birds eventually could be deposited onto the good soil.  Hummm!  Hope?  Grace?  Redemption?  Second chances?  Never give up on people?  These were all thoughts that have continued to flow through my mind over the past two days as I’ve been convicted about my negative attitude.

If you watched the little video clip above, from the movie The Bucket List, you got to see one of my favorite parts in the movie.  It’s funny and raw, but I think it’s a wonderful story, the story about the Kopi Luwak coffee bean.  If you’ve seen the movie you’ll remember how Morgan Freeman’s character shares this story with Jack Nicholson’s character by having him read it out loud.  Of course, Nicholson’s character is not too pleased to find out his favorite and extremely expensive coffee is the bi-product of a tree cat.  It’s the combination of the bean and the gastric juices of the tree cat that gives the coffee its unique flavor and aroma.

Even if you are the most committed coffee drinker you have to be asking yourself, how can tree cat crap make coffee taste that good?  Not sure I’d want to find out.  But, it does paint a beautiful picture of how something that sounds disgusting can become something loved and desired by others.

For me, the untold story is full of hope and redemption.  The bird may represent the evil one, but even the evil one does not have power over the redeeming grace of God.  The seed passing through the digestive system represents the Hell so many of us allow ourselves to be in by not listening to God’s word, but hope lies is in the fact that the digestive system (Hell) doesn’t have to be the end.  Soon we may find ourselves deposited onto good soil where God can use us to produce a crop beyond our wildest dreams.  God is redeeming and restoring everything so we should never give up and never lose hope.

 

The Parable of the Sower…The Untold Story

The Parable of the Sower

(From The Message)

^3-8“What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

18-19“Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.

 ^20-21“The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.

 ²²“The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.

 ²³“The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”

 

The Untold Story

After the birds ate the seed from the road, the seed traveled through their digestive system.  A business man walking along the road frightened the birds and they scattered over the field, crapping the seed onto the good earth, where the seed eventually took root right along side the seed originally cast there by the farmer.

Think about it and then tell me what you think this story means?

sub-ur-buh n-er-ee

sub-ur-ban-ar-y

[suh-bur-buh n-er-ee]

-adjective

1.    a person who is sent on a mission to the suburbs of a city or town.

 

If you take the Dictionary.com definition for suburb and missionary and combine them to form the new word “suburbanary” you get the following definition in it’s simplest form;  a person who is sent on a mission to the suburbs of a city or town.  But what we tend to find in most American churches are foreign missionaries, because churches tend to see more need in foreign countries than they do right in their own back yard.  However, this leaves me wondering why churches in many “foreign” countries seem to be so alive and on fire, when our own churches seem so dead, stagnant, and irrelevant.  Is it just because of the hunger these people have for God or does it have something to do with the missionaries we send?

Do you feel if the church would embrace my new definition of the word “suburbanary” and start focusing on the people and relationships in the neighborhoods where their members live, instead of creating more “programs”, that the identity of the church could change and people who have been so disenchanted with the church would once again regain an understanding of its importance? 

I read an article last week by someone who was predicting the coming evangelical collapse.  In fact the first sentence boldly predicted a major collapse of evangelical Christianity within the next 10 years.

Flipped Switch

It’s an amazing and revealing feeling when the switch finally gets flipped and you realize why you’ve struggled to feel, to write, and to even sense a love for others.  I’ve had trouble thinking of what I can write about and how to even put into words the way I’ve been feeling.  A little empty would probably describe it the best, but I’ve not had any reason to feel that way.  Life is good and God is blessing me more right now than he has at any other time in my life.  But something has certainly been missing and I’ve been praying and asking God to just speak to me. 

Yesterday, while listening to an interview pod-cast with Jamie Tworkowski, founder of TWLOHA (To Write Love On Her Arms) I believe God pointed out what my problem is.  I’M COMFORTABLE!  I could sense it in Jamie’s voice and in his sincere answers.  He’s such a genuine and honest guy and he continually finds himself surrounded by hurting, depressed, and broken people.  His organization is doing an unbelievably good job at raising awareness and pointing out how so many people deal with addictions, depression, and severe disorders that leave them feeling lost and alone.

I’m feeling comfortable because when I look around at the people in my life I don’t see very many who are oppressed.  For the most part, the people in my circle are doing pretty well.  Sure there are problems and issues that we’ve dealt with, but compared to the man living on the street in Dallas, I’d say we’re all doing pretty well.

I’m finally to a point where I have to stop and ask “am I getting my hands dirty?”  What am I doing that is really helping people who are oppressed escape from their oppression and find the life that God wants us to all freely live?  What am I doing that puts myself right in the middle of the battlefield where I might be able to help someone?

I think part of the reason I feel so comfortable is from a lack of challenge in my life.  Most of that is my fault, because I’ve failed to read, seek out, and listen for those opportunities.  I’ve not been pushing myself to find the areas that need the most help and I find myself settling for the status quo.

Understand, I’m not being unreasonably hard on myself.  I am doing some really good things and helping children who are impoverished, but I do feel I have to stop and ask, how much I’m really making a difference.  It’s easy to send the money, the shoes, or the food, but when we’re required to really get our hands dirty, it’s often a different story.

Where I go from here and what my next step should be is the hard question, but as I prayed this morning I felt an overwhelming sense that God was saying “meet your neighbors, ask them what you can pray about for them, and maybe you’ll find oppression you didn’t know was there!”  Maybe if I will listen, trust in God, and do what I feel he’s asking me to do, my life won’t feel so complacent.