Embodying the Gospel: What Kind of Seed is Planted in Our Lives?

December 8, 2015 Roland Kuhl 0 Comments

If you have ever traveled country roads, or even along an interstate that runs through farm country, you will invariably see signs displaying what kind of seed is planted in demonstration plots. Farmers get assistance from seed companies to see how a particular kind of seed grows in their soil. The signs tell us what kind of seed is planted there – and when a good crop results, it adds to the statistics of the effectiveness of that particularly kind of seed in that particular kind of soil.

I believe that God is active in the world and that God is in the business of planting seeds in the lives of every human being. God plants seeds in every kind of life, in every kind of life situation, which Jesus likens to different kinds of soils. The seed that God plants grows when it finds the right kind of soil – not so much the kind of soil, but the state of the soil. God planting seeds in human lives has the capability of transforming our lives, filling our lives with peace, hope, and joy, in which we are able to receive love and give love. And I have seen it, lives are transformed, in the midst of the struggles of daily life people are finding peace, are finding hope and joy, and they are growing in their ability to receive love and give love. Now it’s not an immediate thing, it’s a gradual thing – just as it takes time for a seed planted in fertile ground to grow and produce a crop.

This way that God works in the world in human lives is depicted in the parable, the story that Jesus shares in the Gospels – The Parable of the Soils/Sower (cf. Matthew 13: 3-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:1-15). God plants seed, “sows the word,” as Jesus puts it and it lands in different place, different kinds of soils. Some soil is the hardened pathway where the constant ways of life, the routines of life pack down the soil of our lives where not much can grow. Some soil is filled with rocks, where what is planted cannot take root. Some soils is weedy – roots go down deep and the plant grows, but so do the weeds and the weeds/cares of life choke out the plant. Then, there is soil that is fertile – soil that has been plowed, soil that has been turned over – here seed can find ground to root deeply and grow to produce fruit – a different kind of life.

There is something else I believe. I believe when we give a place for God in our lives, for God to be active in us, that God does prepare the soil of our lives for it to be plowed up, fertile. God has a way of being active within us to become rooted in us and grow in our lives so that we discover God’s transforming influence shaping us, changing us, healing us, strengthening us no matter what we encounter.

I have a friend in whom this is happening.

He’s has had a rough life (I won’t go into all the details – its his story to tell). But, his life is being changed by God – (though his life is still far from being free of struggles and temptations). God and the things of God are growing in him. There are certain scriptures that have become pivotal in transforming his life, bringing about the change that he has been longing for a long time in his life.  These Scriptures are being embodied within him, but he also wants to post them as a signpost.  And the way he does it is by having these Scriptures that are significant to him tattooed onto his body.  This sign – actually, numerous signs – declare what seed God has been planting in his life.

In tattooing his body with Scripture, just as seed companies post their signs on farmers’ fields, he wants others to know the kind of seed that is producing life in him.  He is glad God is doing a good work in him.