40 Days of Prayer: Day 1

We launched our 40-day prayer campaign yesterday and the theme our Regional Spiritual Formation Director sent us was about good soil, from the parable in the book of Mark.

It reminded me of a talk Bill Hybels gave at this year's Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit which I attended earlier in the month.  He mentioned the same parable, but from the book of Luke, and talked about something he had noticed when he read it, even though he had read it many times before.

He noticed that there was a 75% rejection rate.  Three out of the four types of soil rejected the seeds that were sown.  Hybels pointed out, though, that it would be really easy for us to grumble about the rejection.  However, "instead of complaining about how few trees have grown," he said, "we should spend more time planting more seeds...different kinds of seeds."

Plant more seeds.  That's something that stuck with me since the Summit.  To me that's a call to make more invitations.  Often I and many others get lost in the insecurities and fears of inviting people more than once - let alone once - to meet Jesus.  We make it all about us, our reputation and how we feel and let rejection stop us from reaping the harvest that is plentiful.

Plant more seeds.  I also think it's a call to be creative.  You know that quote that says, "Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results?"  Sometimes we need to change the input if we want the output to be different.  So it calls for us to think outside the box, discover our gifts and passions, and diligently steward those gifts with commitment and discipline.  We need to explore new paths and try new methods with the expectation that there is a good possibility we may fail.  Our success is defined differently than the world's.  We are called to obey.  We are called to be faithful.

Plant more seeds.  I think it's a call to pray.  We need to listen for where God is leading.  I am not inherently faithful, and obedience is not always easy, and sometimes it takes a lot of discipline to be creative.  None of this seed sowing should be on our own or by our own power.  We need to abide in Jesus.

Why?  Because the trees that come from planted seeds that grow in good soil - lives that are transformed by the living God of the gospel - are worth it all.