Sept2014_Faith & Living

Sowing and Reaping… A few weeks ago, Judy sowed some seeds in her vegetable garden.  Two rows of lettuce and two of Kale.  Within a week, little green plants were quite evident but there was no way of telling the difference between the two kinds.  They looked exactly alike. I asked, “Are you sure you planted two different things?” Judy said, “just wait. You’ll see.” Now however, they are a few centimetres high and the difference is easy to see. 

A seed will always produce after its kind.  The bible speaks of this…  “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.  For whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.” Galatians 6:7  This a universal law – as real as the law of gravity. Nobody ever sowed lettuce and got kale.  But this law goes far beyond natural gardens and farms, it applies to everything in life!  It says, “whatsoever.” 

 

People who sow violence, reap violence (live by the sword, die by the sword).  Sow kindness, reap kindness.  Be generous and be amazed when you get blessed by another’s generosity to you.  But this law even goes further… even to our thought life.  Whatever you dwell upon in your heart, you incubate until that thing hatches.  It’s true both for good and for bad. Another scripture says, “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7.  The human heart and mind has an enormous capacity to plot and hatch so much good and so much bad.  It’s up to us which direction we allow it to go.  

Everything we are and have, we can use to sow.  Our talents, our money, our voice, our face, our time, our mind.  It takes a desire and a commitment to sow good.  With our face we can sow a smile or a scowl.  With our voice, a kind word, a cheery gidday or a gruff grunt.  We can choose to criticise or to compliment, to pull down or to build up, to encourage or discourage. 

With our heart and mind we can choose to think the best of a person or the worst.  We can choose to see the glass half empty or half full.  Have you noticed that we often describe a person by their traits instead of by their qualities?  “Oh, she’s the loud person with the naughty children.”  It just takes a re-setting of the defaults within our head-computers to change the way we sow.  If we want Dayboro to be a happy, safe and friendly place, then we begin by sowing those things wherever we go.  A final scripture… “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people.” – Galatians 6:9-10

Gary Levens is pastor of Dayboro Church