Fallow Soil

The Parable of the Sower is my favorite parable, and I want to concentrate on one tiny part, found in Matthew 13:5-6:

⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

The meaning of these verses is obvious but still has tremendous resonance with us today. It probably means more to me simply because of my makeup--I'm not an overly emotional person (I am, after all, a male) and I try to not makes the highs too high or the lows too low, but maintain an even keel. To me, emotions are emotions, a vital part of our makeup, but certainly nothing by which I'd ever make an important decision. How I feel on a given issue is far less important that what the truth is.

This is personal, but I get a little nervous when I listen to a person talk about the "close, personal" relationship they have with Jesus. I don't judge or reach conclusions (contrary to what I just wrote), but it makes me leery, because I sense an almost narcotic-like effect. Back in the 70's when I was growing up, there were a lot of dim bulbs out there espousing "getting high on Jesus,"  which was about the stupidest thing I could imagine. Christ IS--how I feel about it is irrelevant. His death and resurrection IS--I should be joyful and thankful, but no emotion can change the fact that my salvation is completely beyond anything I can do. 

When we read about Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus, there's always a part of me that truly hopes that people recognize this for what it is--one story in a book filled with them. It's an important one, one that still has reverberations to this day, since we still read parts of his letters close to 2000 years after that conversion, but I wonder if it sets an unreasonable standard of expectation for Christians. NOT EVERY MOMENT IN OUR LIVES WILL BE DRAMATIC. Not everything we do will be fraught with meaning, and that gets to the heart of the fallow soil--that was a Christian caught up in the EXCITEMENT, the DRAMA, the EMOTION of being a Christian, and when that drama faded away, had nothing left to hold on to. That Christian experienced a high that was unsustainable for whatever reason. The soil in this case was the heart and soul, and for whatever reason, it wasn't sufficiently prepared. 

This is where we come in. In modern agronomy, soil doesn't regenerate itself--the farmer does it in the application of chemicals, crop rotation, providing rest for the land and other techniques. We as Christians are responsible to see that our fellow new believers don't use up all the nutrients in their "soil", but constantly help replenish them. It's far too easy for the burdens and cares of this world (i.e., the "sun") to bear down on new Christians and remove that initial zeal they might have felt. Like every good farmer, we always need to be looking out to make sure our new "crop" is well-tended and cared for.
Scott