Let us talk Lettuce

I am not a gardener by any stretch of the imagination. However last year I gave it a shot. I borrowed a neighbors tiller and plowed up a good sized chunk of my back yard. I thought I did everything just right. I spread out numerous bags of garden soil and cow manure. I had it looking good. I bought seeds and small plants and laid them out them just like the instructions said.  Then the weather took over. It was hot and dry. I could not seem to water my plants enough. I did not have any trees to provide shade for my vegetables so they began to wither, they continued to wither and then they died. Not all of them died but we certainly were not going to be able to feed the family off of what came out of the garden. By the end of the summer the garden was done, the vegetables were dead, the weeds had taken over and I was no longer spending any time trying to save it. One of the last times I cut the grass (mowed the lawn to anyone outside the south) I drove my lawn mower straight over the garden and sent dead and rotten vegetables flying everywhere. Tomatoes were slung against the fence, egg plants were squashed under the tires and lettuce was mulched into a thousand pieces.

Fast forward about nine months to last week. I was cutting the grass and was riding over the former garden and I saw what I thought was a funny looking weed. I stopped the mower and moved in for a closer look. What I discovered is that it was not a weed but it was a small lettuce plant growing back. As I looked around  I saw four other lettuce plants growing. I found two red-leaf lettuce plants, a head of Romaine and one other that is too small for me to identify. I did nothing to initiate their growth. As a matter of fact I almost killed them by running over them. As I hopped back on my mower I began thinking about this as it relates to our efforts to grow the Kingdom. These are the verses that came to mind:

Luke 8: 5 - 8 - 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6 Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”

I Corinthians 3: 5 - 9 - 5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

I have shared the Gospel with numerous people numerous times and have yet to have someone say "Wow, this is just what I have been searching for!" and accept Christ as their Savior. Most just walk away or say "I'm glad it works for you but I'm not interested". Other times I have taught a Sunday school lesson and thought I totally blew it. I fumbled through my notes, lost my place, read the wrong verse and yet still had someone come up and say "I needed to hear that message this morning, thanks." At times I forget and think a person's getting it or not getting it is up to me and my abilities or lack there of but I am reminded from these passages that it is not up to me. I can talk, beg and witness all day long and unless God intervenes they will not respond. I think we should be encouraged by this. We are to scatter seed and let God do the rest. My question to you is - Are you scattering any seeds for the Kingdom? Are you giving God anything he can grow? Even if you are a terrible spiritual gardener God can still use you. Start scattering seeds, harvest time is coming!