This morning I read the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4:1-20. It is a familiar story. A farmer goes out to sow his seed. Some falls along the path, some in the rocky places, some among the thorns. That seed either never sprouts or sprouts and withers quickly due to its circumstances. Still, other seed falls on good soil and grows, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.
This is another of Jesus’ tri-faceted parables. Somewhat like the Prodigal Son where one can focus on the father, the younger son, or the elder son, here one can focus on the sower, the seed, or the plants that sprout from the seed. Today, I thought about the sower, and how he is batting for average. Yes, some seed is lost to the path, the rock, and the thorns, but some lands on good soil and multiplies many times over. Using my limited math skills, at the minimum of the production rate (30 times), so long as the sower gets at least 0.04 on good soil he is coming out ahead. If he gets 0.25 on good soil (bats .250) he is WAY ahead.
The parable is, of course, ripe with message. Among those is this — I can focus on what lands on the path, the rocks, or among the thorns and use that as an excuse to bitch and moan, event to quit sowing, or I can focus on the productivity of what lands on the good soil. It occurs to me what even when not everything, less than most, lands on the good soil, there is still plenty for me to be thankful for.
It occurs to me... 