“Keep sowing the seed”

Thought of the day – Sunday 12th July 2020

A Sower went out to sow (Matthew 13)

I am totally confused at just where we are in the year, I am used to the familiar milestones along my annual journey and this year, the majority of those milestones haven’t happened and I feel disorientated most days, not knowing where we have got up to. Living in an area of arable farming, it is a common sight during the spring seeing the farmer sowing seeds and seagulls following the tractor having a good meal.

Many years ago, back in Yorkshire I remember getting quite frustrated with teenagers, we would work alongside young people and attempt to make youth activities in Church as relevant and exciting as we possibly could.  We took them away on trips, took them to events and I used to love the work and have very fond memories of those days long past.  My frustration was that we did all the work, but still lost them from the life of Church.  I remember talking this through with Bill Martyn our Minister and his advice was “Don’t you worry about the outcome, God will deal with that, you just keep on sowing the seeds” I have always remembered and valued that advice.

We might long for a one hundred percent harvest, but the simple fact is this, if we stop sowing the seeds, there will be no harvest at all, so must keep on doing the best we can.  Living on the opposite side of the road to a large field, we suddenly find unexpected crops growing in our garden, maybe seeds picked up by the seagulls and randomly dropped in our soil and that reminds me that sometimes, the seeds we sow come to fruition in some of the strangest and most unexpected places and we might never see the results of our efforts.