I realised this week, afresh, how easily I can miss the point. I was teaching on Galatians 6 and came to the familiar passage “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. You reap that which you sow.” I have often used this passage to comfort myself when I saw “the wicked prospering.” My take on this passage was that judgement is unavoidable and that a kind of Christian karma exists that will recompense evil doers justly. This time I asked myself if the same was true of actions that sprang from “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.” Do these activities contain the same ‘seed’ which ultimately bring about harvest? Does every small act of Christian kindness contain the dynamic power to result in multiplied yield? Paul goes on to admonish us “not to weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap, if we do not faint.”
Too often I consider feeble efforts at Kingdom kindness, as small. Paul makes clear that God sees them as powerful seeds through which He will bring about an abundant harvest. Like a gardener who plants seed and sees nothing for a season, we sow tiny goodnesses, though we see no immediate result. God’s first command was to “Go and multiply.” This has not been rescinded. Paul makes clear that sowing and multiplying continues to this day. What we sow and what multiplies is our choice. One of the key factors keeping us as poor Kingdom multipliers, is a sense of our puniness and ineffectualness. We easily are duped into complacency, but Paul wants to activate us to lives of daily sowing. We then leave the harvest to God who promises that kindness, love etc. will indeed bear fruit.
This view of the God of the harvest, using the smallest kindness as seed ought to thrill us and constrain us knowing we can indeed have a consequential impact, not by our own efforts but by God’s almighty power working in our weakest efforts. A cup of cold water becomes a dynamic weapon for the Kingdom of God. I dare not withhold that cup or that cheery smile, or helping hand or word of encouragement, because each missed opportunity is one less seed sown for the Kingdom of God and one lost chance to partner, in a small way, with God in Harvest.
On a personal note, I am slowly getting back to active life. My back remains relatively pain free. The wound on my back from the removal of a growth is slow in healing. It has been three weeks and I still wait (a bit impatiently) for it to heal completely.
We are experiencing some of the challenges of community living at Threshold House, as quite different personalities learn to live with one another. This is not easy, and we covet your prayers for this, especially at this time.
We are starting “Breakfast & a Message” Saturday September 24th and plan to make this a monthly event. We will be offering a hot breakfast and inviting a guest speaker to share a message of hope.
Our Friday Night Drop In continues. We had a really good group last week when we had a barbecue. We hope to continue to build our network out.
Hope & Reedemption 