A New Devotion - Focus

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. It's based on the passage below. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Luke 8:1-15 [Contemporary English Version]

Soon after this, Jesus was going through towns and villages, telling the good news about God's kingdom. His twelve apostles were with him, and so were some women who had been healed of evil spirits and all sorts of diseases. One of the women was Mary Magdalene, who once had seven demons in her. Joanna, Susanna, and many others had also used what they owned to help Jesus and his disciples. Joanna's husband Chuza was one of Herod's officials. 

When a large crowd from several towns had gathered around Jesus, he told them this story:

A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. While the farmer was doing this, some of the seeds fell along the road and were stepped on or eaten by birds. Other seeds fell on rocky ground and started growing. But the plants did not have enough water and soon dried up. Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked the plants. The rest of the seeds fell on good ground where they grew and produced a hundred times as many seeds.

When Jesus had finished speaking, he said, “If you have ears, pay attention!”

Jesus' disciples asked him what the story meant. So he answered:

I have explained the secrets about God's kingdom to you. But for others I use stories, so they will look, but not see, and they will hear, but not understand.

This is what the story means: The seed is God's message, and the seeds that fell along the road are the people who hear the message. But the devil comes and snatches the message out of their hearts, so they will not believe and be saved. The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it. But they don't have deep roots, and they believe only for a little while. As soon as life gets hard, they give up.

The seeds that fell among the thornbushes are also people who hear the message. But they are so eager for riches and pleasures that they never produce anything. Those seeds that fell on good ground are the people who listen to the message and keep it in good and honest hearts. They last and produce a harvest.

Focus

Whenever I have a job to do, my greatest challenge is keeping my focus. You see, instead of writing the sermon or making the phone calls, my mind immediately seems to drift to something else. And even if my attention is moved by concerns that are real and to things that may also be important, none of this stuff is helping me complete whatever I have to do. For example, on Saturdays I write my sermon for Sunday morning. And even though actually preaching the message is a lot of fun, writing it is work. It demands concentration, and it takes time. And maybe that’s the reason, if I’m not very intentional, by 4:00 I will have considered all kinds of issues and finished a whole bunch of stuff that really didn’t need to be done, while my sermon is still about 100 words on the computer screen. I’ll tell you, for 35 years, I’ve found that staying focused has been a weekly challenge.

And I’ll tell you, I think Jesus was suggesting the same thing about doing our job as Christians. You see, in the parable and explanation we just read, we are the sower; therefore, it’s our job to scatter the seed, in other words, to share the word of God through the words we use and the work we do. But as it is with most jobs, it’s challenging to keep our focus. I mean, we’re surrounded by distractions, with the most obvious one being how our work will be received. You see, we worry about whether or not we’ll be successful, and because of that, we often look for other things to do or, worse, compromise what we’re doing to make our job easier and to boast our chance for success even if we have to alter the “seed” to do it. 

And I think that’s why Jesus offered both a warning and a promise. I mean, on one hand, when a sower is out doing his job, a lot of the seeds just will fall on less than fertile soil; therefore, they’re not going to be productive. That’s just the way it is, but we shouldn’t allow that to distract our focus. Because, on the other hand, a lot of the seeds we sow are going to fall on hyper-productive soil and the amount of fruit produced will be overwhelming. Now that’s what Jesus said.

In other words, as we go about doing the job we’ve been called to do, it’s important for us to fight our wandering minds and distracted vision. And with concentration and clarity, we should do the work God has given us to do with focus.

A New Devotion - The Harvest to Come

Here's a new devotion that I wrote. It's based on the passage below. You can find a recording of this devotion at the bottom of the page.

Mark 4:1-20 [Contemporary English Version]

The next time Jesus taught beside Lake Galilee, a big crowd gathered. It was so large that he had to sit in a boat out on the lake, while the people stood on the shore. He used stories to teach them many things, and this is part of what he taught:

Now listen! A farmer went out to scatter seed in a field. While the farmer was scattering the seed, some of it fell along the road and was eaten by birds. Other seeds fell on thin, rocky ground and quickly started growing because the soil wasn't very deep. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and dried up, because they did not have deep roots. Some other seeds fell where thornbushes grew up and choked out the plants. So they did not produce any grain. But a few seeds did fall on good ground where the plants grew and produced 30 or 60 or even 100 times as much as was scattered.

Then Jesus said, “If you have ears, pay attention.”

When Jesus was alone with the twelve apostles and some others, they asked him about these stories. He answered:

I have explained the secret about God's kingdom to you, but for others I can use only stories. The reason is,

“These people will look

    and look, but never see.

They will listen and listen,

    but never understand.

If they did,

they would turn to God

    and be forgiven.”

Jesus then told them:

If you don't understand this story, you won't understand any others. What the farmer is spreading is really the message about the kingdom. The seeds that fell along the road are the people who hear the message. But Satan soon comes and snatches it away from them. The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it at once. But they don't have roots, and they don't last very long. As soon as life gets hard or the message gets them in trouble, they give up.

The seeds that fell among the thornbushes are also people who hear the message. But they start worrying about the needs of this life. They are fooled by the desire to get rich and to have all kinds of other things. So the message gets choked out, and they never produce anything. The seeds that fell on good ground are the people who hear and welcome the message. They produce 30 or 60 or even 100 times as much as was planted.

The Harvest to Come

When I lived in eastern Montana, I really grew to respect dry land farmers but not just for the work they did. You see, from my perspective, they had an incredible ability to maintain their focus on the harvest that was coming. I mean, even though they were emotionally held hostage by horrible things over which they had no control, like very little rain or enormous swarms of grasshoppers, they didn’t allow that stuff to become distractions, much less to cause them to become so discouraged that they simply gave up. Instead, they did the work they had to do, looking forward to the time when they could bring in their crops. Their focus was on the harvest to come.

And I think Jesus is challenging us to do the same thing ourselves as Christian disciples. You see, we really are like farmers, scattering the seed by sharing the good news through our words and our work. And as we go about doing what we’ve been called to do, we’re going to encounter all kinds of distractions. You see, whether it’s emphatic opposition or shallow commitment or overloaded lives, we’ll see plenty of reasons to feel discouraged. But rather than either throwing up our hands or curling up into a fetal position, we have reason to maintain our focus and to continue doing the job God has given us. Why? That’s simple; as Christ reminded his disciples, regardless of what they might face along the way, they can be confident that the harvest to come will certainly be worth the effort.