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Matthew 13: 3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them
8 But other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold.
I read this the other day while eating breakfast and I could not help but make a parallel to the way that I eat. It won’t leave my mind, so I thought I would post it in hopes it might give someone else food for thought.
Our family tries to eat local and organically grown food as much as possible.
It is generally more expensive.
It is often harder to find.
It is hopefully better for our bodies in the long run.
It is hopefully better for our local economy.
It is hopefully better for our global environment.
I have compared my faith journey thus far to a tree that sprang up and brought forth some non organic fruit. I am not sure how many fold–not necessarily bad fruit but with some unnecessary and perhaps damaging baggage. Now my tree is struggling mightily to grow organically without artificial fertilizers or pesticides. Trying to find enough natural nutrients (ie Authentic history, actual truth, ___________) is hard and trying to avoid the damaging insects (ie anti-mormon rhetoric written with bitterness and malice, my own anger, frustration, apathy, __________) is much more challenging than drinking up the party line church story and branding everything that paints the church in a negative light as evil.
This method of growth costs more emotionally, intellectually and spiritually.
It is harder to find peace here and harder to know how to bear god fruit–in fact, the transition has almost killed my tree.
I hope it is more beneficial to my spirit in the long run.
I hope as there are more “organic” spirits, our local congregations are places where we can feel nourished
I hope by growing this way, we can have a positive impact on the church as a whole eventually
blindsided wrote:
I read this the other day while eating breakfast and I could not help but make a parallel to the way that I eat. It won’t leave my mind, so I thought I would post it in hopes it might give someone else food for thought.
Thank you, blindsided. It does!blindsided, Nice. I like it (the description, not going through a faith crisis and into a faith transition).
I especially can relate to your last paragraph. Oh how true.
Nice thoughts, thanks for sharing. Fair warning, my brain isn’t wired up correctly. My thought as I was reading, the insects are only damaging if we are locked into an interpretation of how the fruit is to be used. The fruit was meant for humans but the insects got to it first. Does anything change in the analogy if we concede that even the insects have to eat? What makes the fruit good, that it is inherently good or that it was ultimately found useful for our intended purpose?
I also especially like the last few lines.
Maybe some days I’m the human in the farmer’s market searching for the organic fruit that can cumulatively make my church healthier over the long haul. Maybe some days I’m the insect that’s chanced upon the fruit before the humans could get to it and I want to use it to make my swarm healthier over the long haul. Either way I hope the fruit ends up strengthening those around me.
Like I said, wires crossed.
Maybe this is where Jacob’s vineyard comes into play. We can look in the nethermost parts of our vineyards to graft only the good branches from our past back on to our organic trees to keep us going for a season, at least until a steward of the vineyard can come back around and dung us some more.
Are you preparing a lesson for Sunday using Dallin Oaks talk? Me too.
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