[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Saturday, September 7, 2013

[Paul]

Well folks, with this day we've gone through the first week of the month represented in birth stones by the blue saphire.  Don't know how that was figured out or, for that matter, how each month got its particular birth stone, but it's interesting if not a curiosity to know.  Anyway as this is being read by each of you individually, I hope that your day is going well or went well.

Some years ago Pamela Kennedy wrote a piece with an interesting title to it called "So How Do You Sow?" that is rendered as follows:

I have one of those screensavers on my computer that cycles through a variety of scenic vistas every few seconds.  One day, when inspiration and motivation were particularly sparse, I sat staring at the screen, mesmerized by the beautiful scenery.  Waving palms melted into tumbling surf, waterfalls splashed into pools that morphed into majestic mountains, and rippling streams flowed into fields of wheat, undulating in the summer wind.

It was the fields of wheat that brought to mind the verse from Paul's second letter to the believers at Corinth.  The wheat fields on my computer screen looked like they extended for miles.  I began to wonder about the little seeds, millions of them, that must have been sown in the fertile soil of some Midwestern plain and about the farmers who planted them.  Was that what Paul had envisioned as he penned his words? I suspect not, because the context of this verse has to do with giving and good works, not with agriculture.  But it got me thinking about other kinds of sowing and harvests, and I'm pretty sure that's what Paul intended.

I began to look around at some of the planters in my community and at the harvests they are yielding.  The school where I teach was planted over 135 years ago by a Hawaiian queen with a vision for educating young women.  Since the initial sowing of Queen Emma's dream, generations of daughters have earned degrees from St. Andrew's Priory and gone on to serve as leaders in every field imaginable.

Another aspect of my life influenced by a planter is the area where I live; it was a tropical jungle only 45 years ago.  Then a wealthy developer named Henry Kaiser--who combed his two passions to create a new word, imagineering--designed and built a planned community with ponds, canals and homes for thousands of families.  His generously planted seeds grew into Hawaii Kai, a thriving suburb 12 miles east of Honolulu.

The more I looked, the more I found.  There are generous sowers all around me.  A best friend is the children's director at our church.  Every week she leads a team of teachers who plant seeds of faith and encouragement in the lives of their young students.  A colleague tutors young women who are incarcerated, planting seeds of hope for a more productive future.  A retired executive works tirelessly to acquire resources to build housing and clinics for the homeless.  A young couple spends their vacation planting vegetable gardens in the poorest shantytowns of South Africa.  Harvests are springing up everywhere.

And then I discovered something about that verse of Paul's I had never seen before:  We are all sowers.  He doesn't say some are sowers and some are not.  He says some so sparingly and some sow generously.  We're all planting every day!

The choice then becomes one of deciding the kind of harvest we want to produce.  If I want to leave a legacy that perpetuates blessing, I need to be generously planting seeds of faith and joy, of encouragement and hope every day.  Seeds of negativity, criticism, anger, or worry only lead to scrawny weeds of discouragement.

Thinking of myself as a sower gives me a new perspective on my everyday encounters.  There is fertile soil all around, people ready to receive a word or a smile, planted with kindness and watered with loving patience.  We each have the exciting and challenging opportunity to become a partner with God, who prepares the soil and superintends the harvest.  Then together we can enjoy the fruitfulness of His grace.  It doesn't matter if we are royalty, millionaires, teachers, executives, or homemakers.  I now realize that whatever we are, we are also sowers.  Each day, the fields await us, prepared and ready.  So, how do you sow?

Dear Lord of the harvest, please help me to be a diligent and joyful planter so that the seeds I sow will produce abundant blessings in the lives I touch every day.  Amen.

Wow, but what an interesting and challenging article for us collectively and as individuals! Did you notice that Pamela forgot to actually give the reference? Well, after a little digging research into the Word, I came up with 2 Corinthians 9:6.  If I'm wrong, please tell me, as I like to hear from people in whatever way they wish to communicate.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul