Heart Soul Mind Strength

May 2025

I hope you are enjoying my thoughts and story interweaving lessons from the Bible and from my life. Jesus taught the Parable of the Sower as a key to understanding His parables and to forming an encouraging picture of the Kingdom of God as a laborer in His fields. I’m not yet sure how many parts this series of planting-related parables will have, but I see at least three.

Part 1 deals with my story of misplaced personal ambition to show off a harvest of my own accomplishment versus the reality of God’s kingdom being both dependent on Him and interdependent with our brothers and sisters in Christ. His goodness and faithfulness is the enduring truth. In Part 2 I want to talk about the encouragement I glean from realizing the various outcomes to expect when we do sow the seed of the gospel and in Part 3, I want to encourage you not to worry so much about the sowing of the enemy. God knows the end from the beginning and all we need focus on is applying what He’s teaching us in this season.

In Matthew 13 Jesus teaches parables about sowing seeds, growing season, the enemy, and what to expect at harvest time. In these analogies, the field is the world. Jesus’ commission in Matthew 28:19 charges us to spread the seed – make disciples everywhere. As a youth, I imagined that one day I would go somewhere exotic and heroically accomplish this mission for God. I pictured myself as a superhero of faith, doing admirable work that others recognized and acclaimed. As youthful human enthusiasm often does, I focused on earning acceptance, love, and praise for doing a good job.

My specific idea was to be a missionary. My vision included primitive living, which has always appealed to me. I enjoy physical labor and the gratification of faithfully completing regular chores. Perhaps this is in my blood as I am only second generation from farmers and my whole family of cousins and siblings fully embrace the ethic of diligence and hard work. In an exotic setting, I imagined activities such as drawing water from deep wells, scrubbing floors on hands and knees, building with brick and cement, raising and growing food while wearing beautiful flowing skirts, serving others gently and selflessly, shining with God’s grace, and feeling the warmth of the Light shining through me. Although the outward picture was noble and good, inside I felt ambition to achieve success to verify my worthiness.

In a sense, I went out into the world to “seek my fortune” more than to actually lay down my life or fully surrender to Jesus. “Seeking my fortune” is contradictory to the way Jesus instructed His disciples to proceed in the Kingdom of God. We are to seek first His kingdom, and not worry about anything else. Selling our personal ambitions to purchase the field in which we know the pearl of great price is hidden.

Since we cannot possibly do this on our own, He told His followers to “stay and wait” for the Holy Spirit first. To then preach the gospel right in the city where they were, then in the region, then in a nearby town, and finally to the far away regions. I thought I had checked off the first of the list of locations pretty early because I worked alongside my parents in my neighborhood and town and in Mexico. However, I missed the very first instruction to wait for the Helper, the Guide, for His power to initiate total yielding to the will of God.

As I look back in my journals from the time of anxiously pushing to achieve my success story, I see that I was trying to rush to the finish line as if God needed my emergency assistance.

Another deep scheme in my heart hoped that when I finished God’s requirements, I would be allowed to do what I wanted with the balance of my life. Living “happily ever after” according to my superficial imagination lived in the background of my mind. I thought of doing God’s business like doing my chores or duty first, then being free to play. Eating my veggies so that I could get dessert. This is not the case.

Living in God’s Kingdom is the whole meal. He remakes us into who He designed us to be, and this reshapes our appetite to hunger for Him. He will provide us what we need, but the process of transformation doesn’t feel nice until the work inside us becomes as real as “I AM.”

The assignments He gives us are the pathways He uses to teach and change US as we choose to obey to His actual, literal commands day by day. Whatever path we go down, provided our will is surrendered to Him, He shepherds us and trains us. He uses disciplinary tools, speaks to us, reminds us of the Truth, and is an ever-present Parent to the tender young who desires Him. Hebrews 12: 6-11 puts it like this, “For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” Obedience to the Lord does not come naturally to any human, but once He teaches us, surrender to God is restful and peaceful. When we align to Him, we are aligned for optimal existence, growth, and bearing of fruit.

The impact we have in the world becomes deep, stable, and unstoppable when we attentively listen and take each step with the current full measure of faith we have. This is the process of the good seed sprouting and leafing out. Growth happens as He increases our faith to the next size up. It’s commonly not an easy or quick process.

As a youth, my experience with growing and sowing gospel seeds came alongside my family through church-sponsored programs and short-term mission trips. God was faithful to touch children and grown-ups with the gospel and the love of God through me and my family. These were more like a student internship in the Great Commission in which I was the learner.

As a youth, I am grateful for the experience and example my parents provided in serving the kingdom of God. Mom’s giftings were teaching groups a detailed understanding of the Bible and bold personal confrontation of anyone, anywhere to tell them about salvation through Jesus Christ. Dad’s giftings included acts of service to the masses to extend a tangible representation of God’s love by fulfilling a human need such as dental work or house building and deep, one-on-one lectures with detailed analysis of what life should practically look like in the context of fully pursuing the kingdom of God.

I understood it to be a requirement to teach the gospel to everyone. As a child, I was able to “just do it” despite self-conscious feelings from the public speaking aspect. I was trying to embody both Dad’s logical analysis, Mom’s teaching and bold confrontation, and to find ways to express the deep sense of God’s love for people that welled up inside me. My gifting may me more along the lines of showing mercy, but I also love to interact with knowledge and application of knowledge to real life. In the time of deepest need, to grasp the Truth that helps people climb out of the hole or keep ahold of hope.

I did not internalize the lesson that I needed to keep obeying Jesus right where I live before going off somewhere else. I needed to gain experience in God’s grace, hearing His voice, and losing my self-consciousness in Holy Spirit boldness and confidence. These come through a process of incremental growth in faith and relationship with the Holy Spirit.

So, instead of dwelling where God placed me until I matured, I would rush around scattering seed randomly. Trying to assume spiritual maturity or rush the growth process of faith is like trying to plant today and harvest tomorrow. There’s nothing a farmer can do to make a crop grow to full maturity in less than the time required. Expecting magical spirituality to finish many years of growth, development, and maturity in a much shorter timeframe was frustrating to me. I was not being still to get to know the God who IS. I would grab an idea about the God who could be from my imagination. I would take off down that road. The idea of chasing butterflies comes to mind. I would see God’s fingerprints everywhere and get excited about the sight. This is the nature of children, I suppose, zealous and not yet aware of any dangers or traps. Children often learn to tune out the Voice of their closest protectors and advocates, and immature Believers may do the same with the Shepherd – until they experience the informative pain of feeling the need of His care.

In wisdom, my parents set me up to sow in fields nearby where I myself had sprouted. Fields that were ready for seed. Other fields ready to harvest, entering into the labor of others. Looking back, I see now that I preferred the idea of getting credit for the sowing and the reaping, but God doesn’t allow one of us do all the parts of the process in pride and ambition for selfish acclaim. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory” [Philippians 2:3.]

But God is faithful to complete what He starts and to stay with us to our maturity. In Part 2, I want to dive into the different grounds upon which He sows the seeds through our hands. Don’t be discouraged! God will not be disappointed – He knows already. Part 3 will look at why not to be discouraged by the results of the enemy planter.

Praise the Lord of the Harvest!

Don’t worry because the Lord of the Harvest knows all about it!