The vegetables that I planted at the beginning of Lent look much different than the day I planted them. They have leaves. They are about ready to be transplanted into a much bigger area of soil. They are greener. They are growing. Eventually, if I continue watering them and they continue receiving sunlight, they will provide. Seeds are dead to the world when they are not planted. They don't grow and they don't provide. When they are planted, watered, and receive sunlight, they grow and provide.
Jesus says that when we hold on to life, we are like the unplanted seeds. Dead to the world, we dream of what life would be like if . . .
We wonder, dream, philosophize, and blog about how we're waiting on a miracle to happen, for writing in the sky to direct us where to go and what to do. Being unplanted means two things when it comes to a seed: no growth and nothing to offer.
I know way more about being unplanted than being planted into something. I know what it's like to wake up every morning, searching frantically, philosophizing about how good life will be as soon as I figure out what exactly it is that God wants me to do.
The problem with this way of thinking is, I can't see God. I can't hear God. So, how can I possibly receive from God what I'm expecting him to give me when I can't see or hear him?
Waiting for the will of God to appear is like holding onto a seed expecting it to grow without soil, water, and sunlight. It's like holding onto life, expecting it to flourish without spiritual nourishment and love. Jesus goes so far to say that holding onto life this way actually destroys it. It doesn't grow so it doesn't provide.
Following Jesus for his audience meant literally following him. They could see him. They could touch him. They could listen to him. His words made sense in the literal sense, even though Jesus used the metaphor of the wheat grain. What do his words mean for us today?
Following Jesus is synonymous with letting go of our lives, and planting them into the world. We are finding real life. We are taking the passions and desires of our hearts and manifesting them with love in the real world, and not just thinking about how life would be so good if . . .
We don't see Jesus. We don't hear Jesus. We don't touch Jesus. The best we can do is interpret his words and do the best we can with our interpretations. Whatever happens after that is unique to the individual who does it. There are no generalizations when it comes to this. One person's following Jesus will look way different than another's. What should be synonymous though is the continuous "letting go" of the idea that being planted in the world is a mere philosophy.
When we let go of life, we find that we are ready to serve at a moment's notice. We can't see Jesus, although we get the sense that God is everywhere. Serving others is how we get the sense that "Jesus is present here."
The will of God is inside each of us. When we plant our deepest passions into the world, we grow to the point that we can give ourselves away. We sprout and reproduce many times over, and we get more and more of the life that we use to only dream about. As we receive our nourishment and sustenance, we give it away. But, we can't give anything away we don't have already.
Waiting for purpose, or meaning, or God's will to appear is essentially holding onto a life that is dead to the world. It may seem like there is meaning in the waiting, but months and years pass with the same feeling of being lost in the middle of a dark, scary forest. I'll say one more thing before I close this.
As I grew up, I always has this underlying fear that doing what I wanted to do was somehow always wrong. Pleasure was something to be avoided or tiptoed around. For years, I avoided and ignored my passion for music and writing. Since they made me feel good, I doubted they could have been from God. God's will meant doing things I didn't want to do. It meant sacrificing all of me, the good and the bad, in order to "follow his will." So, things like school and world had no meaning. Pain had no meaning. Relationships had no meaning.
It took over ten years to decide that following after my desires and passions could actually be a good thing. It could actually mean planting myself into the world, and taking action. It could actually mean connecting with God in a way that before I would have considered ungodly. I want to encourage anyone who's reading this post. If you've followed the same belief system that I have, that says "whatever makes me feel good is wrong," I encourage you to trust your passions and see where they take you.
Even when we follow our passions, and they lead us to pain, we are at least experiencing something. I believe it is better to take a path and fail, than to take no path at all, or wait around for God to show us something. What we will find the majority of the time is that when we follow our passions we are actually finding more of life, the way it was intended to be. When we are experiencing life the way it was intended, we are connected with God in a way that is real, lasting, and . . . more.
Today's Action: Ask ourselves, What am I passionate about? What am I doing to plant this passion into the world? Do one thing today that that supports this passion, then reflect on it when we retire for the night.
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