Daily Devotion for Lent 2015 Day 9

Daily Devotion for Lent

Friday, February 27, 2015, Day 9

Mark 4:1-9 (NRSV)

We really prepare the soil for sowing today.  This
work really makes a contrast for the random nature
of the sowing in the parable.

I like the indiscriminate faith of the sower.  The sower does not identify which is good ground and which is poor ground.  If you were sowing seed, you would not waste any on the path.  You would avoid rocky or thorny soil.

A sower of any competence would be picky about where to plant the seed.

This allows us to realize that this metaphorical language is speaking about something else.

We aren't to apply God's grace like we would a finite resource.

My son David was telling me the other day that he did better on his video game when he prayed for a good result.  I replied, "I don't know if that's the kind of thing you should be praying for, David.  You don't want to waste your prayers on video games."

He responded, "We have unlimited prayers, Dad."

At this point, he was more like the sower and I was more like the person that tries to place limitations on the spiritual depth of our lives.

Often in life, we may approach the various types of "soil" (people) with reservations. What if you thought to yourself, "I'm not ever going to run out of seeds.  Why not?"

Prayer from the hymn, "God, How Can We Comprehend?' by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette:

Lord, your loving knows no bounds;
You have conquered death for all.
May we hear beyond our towns
To our distant neighbors' call.
Spirit, may our love increase;
May we reach to all your earth,
'Till each person lives in peace;
'Till your world sees each one's worth.
Amen.



Prayer, (c) 1999 by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette from Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today's Worship

Photo by Michael Trolove [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons