February 19: Of Fertile Soil

Leviticus 7:28-9:6

Mark 3:31-4:25

Psalm 37:12-29

Proverbs 10:5

What does it take to become fertile soil?  A lot of work, it turns out.  A path needs to be dug up, the compacted soil overturned and loosened..  If the ground is rocky, the rocks need to be removed as well.  Thorn bushes?  They need to be cleared.  If one perseveres, however, after all the work is done, one winds up with fertile soil.

But it is hard, often uncomfortable, sometimes downright painful work.  If the path one walks is smooth, why break it up?  Such tremendous temptation to leave what doesn't seem broken well enough alone.  And those rocks - they can be very heavy.  Much easier to leave them be.  And stripping away those thorn bushes - that's going to hurt.  Cuts.  Bleeding fingers, hands, maybe even legs and faces.  Wouldn't it be much happier for us to leave things alone?

Probably not.  But more than that, it's worth remembering God doesn't call us to happiness, he calls us to holiness, precisely so we can be fertile ground for His Word - that we hear it, take it in, and then share it with many.  For that, however difficult or painful, our lives have to be tilled and shaken out of whatever comfortable paths they are on, and the things that prevent us from hearing the Word, or living it - those rocks, those thorns, have to go.  However difficult or painful.

Father, the complacency of an undisturbed life, the difficulty and pain involved in change make us reluctant to become the fertile soil for Your Word, Your love for our brothers and sisters.  Help us to delight in You, so that when we falter, You will make firm our steps; and when we stumble, we will not fall, because You uphold us with Your hand.  And help us to turn over our lives to You, for Your purpose and Your glory.