Responsbility of the Sower

Our district superintendent wrote a devotion for our church's Lenten devotional for today which I really liked. If you want to read it in its entirety, go here.

He is talking about the Parable of the Sower, as found in Mark 4:1-9. He asks us to look at the parable from the aspect of the one who is spreading the seeds, not at the ground upon which it lands. Listen to this:

We are given the privilege of scattering those seeds wherever we can – not paying attention to what we think are the proper or good conditions. We have no way of knowing how the “receivers” will listen (or even if they will listen), but how can they ever hear if no one is sharing the word with them.

Doesn't that idea put everything in a different perspective? It places the responsiblity on us as sowers -- to sow the seed. If you think about that, then the following become true:

• We don't get to choose where to sow the seed. It's not our job to say, "That person would never be changed by God's word."
• It's not our seed in the first place. God provides the perfect seeds, and we are given a limitless supply of them. Our job is to go out and spread them, and no rationing is allowed.
• We may never know the result of our sowing. Sometimes we'll get to see the seed take root and grow, but sometimes we don't get that privledge.
• Just because we don't see the end results, doesn't mean there isn't one.

So picture it. An analogy. Someone has come to our doorway, and left us with the perfect bag of grass seed. It is all great seed; not a weed in the bunch. We hop in our car, and drive across town, until we reach the place that we hadn't expected to reach. We jump out, and spread the seed in someone's yard. We aren't sure if the ground here is good for this project or not -- we just spread the seeds. And then we leave. Did the seed germinate and grow? Did our work make any difference at all? We usually do not know, but God does. He cares for the seed, and cares for the sower.

And sometimes the words germinates.