April 25, 2018

FARMING OUR HEARTS

Sirach 6:18-19

My son, from your youth up, choose instruction,
And you will find wisdom also into old age.
Come to her as one who plows and sows,
And wait expectantly for her good fruits;
For in her work you will labor a little while,
Then you will quickly eat of her fruit.

Personal Challenge

I am so thankful that I was blessed with the opportunity to not only grow up in the farming country but to also have been involved in many different aspects of the farming and animal husbandry part of that world. It has made it so much easier to understand many of the scriptures that use images based on farming. Wisdom, or Jesus, as the early church fathers determined wisdom to be, is someone that we must pursue aggressively and passionately throughout our lives. We do not get to know Him deeply by just reading another book or listening to another sermon or podcast. Getting to know Jesus and acquiring His wisdom is like planting and growing an orchard. It takes time to prepare the soil for deep-rooted trees, time to plant the seedlings and nurture them until they are ready to be grafted, time of pruning and nurturing the tree until it is ready to produce fruit, and then spending the remainder of the years continuing to work with the trees until they have run the full gambit of their life, This is what we must do with our own lives, our own hearts, and our own minds. Without this lifelong effort, we will never taste the good fruits of wisdom (Jesus). Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!