Yesterday, we introduced ways to flourish through the first letter in our acronym, BLOOM:
- B — Be mindful of your heart.
In her book, Scouting the Divine, Margaret Feinberg uncovered some great Biblical truths through her own Scripture study and through interviews with some farmers. Today, as we consider the soil of our own hearts, let’s think about a couple more lessons from a farmer.
Lesson 2: Don’t quit when the harvest seems underwhelming.
Sometimes there are just hard seasons for farmers. They care for the soil, plow the ground, and plant their crops as usual, but the harvest is lean. Other times, it is abundant. Likewise, we can care tenderly and intentionally care for our hearts, but find ourselves in a dry spell.
Personally speaking, I remember seasons when I was walking in close relationship with God through prayer and studying His word, the Bible. I would ask Him to let His truth root deeply in my heart, yet still struggle with really understanding the meaning behind Scripture verses or how to live out their principles. In those times I needed to keep trusting in God. Rather than letting frustration or shame take hold of me, I took those frustrations and concerns directly to Him. Sometimes He pointed out places of rocky soil within me. Other times He revealed that He was using my dry spell to prepare me or someone around me for something new. Staying close to God even in those less fruitful times has taught me to praise Him in both the famine and the feast, understanding that God always is at work around, in, for, and through me.
Lesson 3: Be patient in the wait.
The parable of the sower gives us rich insights about the farmer that we can apply to the care of our hearts. We see in Matthew 13 that the farmer steadfastly sowed seeds, but the soil’s tilth affected the harvest. Some seed fell on hard places and couldn’t take root. Others fell in shallow soil and took root, but not deep enough to sustain life, and still other seed fell in the crevices of the hard places and were eventually choked.
There were signs of life and a harvest with these seeds, but the fruit was fleeting. Only the seed that landed in fertile soil could really root deeply and flourish, and those seeds required time to mature. Our heart soil is similar. As we take in the seeds of God’s truth and love, they will bump into some hard and rocky places, as well as the fertile places. If we allow God to cultivate the fruit of patience and discernment in the midst of these maturing seasons, we will grow right along with those seeds. Isn’t it encouraging to know that while God is teaching us more and more about Himself, He also is maturing the fruit of His Spirit within us?
Come back tomorrow when we explore a couple of lessons in vulnerability: Be willing to be opened, and allow yourself to be stirred.
