Over the years of growing gardens, I’ve become disappointed often with the results. Sometimes I am amazed at how much did grow, but many other times I’ve found myself saying, “That’s it? That’s all I’m getting out of this effort?”

Some of the problem here in Maryland is the soil where I have more recently had the garden, though it is far from terrible (even if it’s not New Jersey soil!). More of it has had to do with the location that is too shaded too much of the day.

But one thing I know I can’t do, and that is to blame the seed. There is nothing wrong with that; it is a soil condition and location issue that has thwarted more recent efforts. Or failure to nurture and water appropriately.

In the parable we have been looking at in Mark 4, the seed speaks of God’s Word, and there is nothing wrong with that. Where there was no fruit, the past three days we have detailed the soil conditions that contributed to the absence. And now today, even with fruit being produced, there is a variety to the amount of yield. Jesus told the story like this …

⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

⁹ Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

In the later interpretation in verse 20, Christ said …

²⁰ Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

It was 40 years ago that I remember a sermon on this passage being preached in my home church by a new assistant pastor, a man who came into ministry out of being a regular attender in the pews of the church. He introduced it by saying that, in his early months of serving and working with the congregants he often asked our older, long-term pastor why it was that some people seemed to “get it” and move ahead, while others heard all of the same stuff but never appeared to be impacted. And our senior pastor would just answer, “Read the parable of the sower and the seed.”

It is so true, and I’ve lived to see it now over the past 40 years of ministry. Some people come and look interested for a time, but they’re gone almost as quickly as they came … something else caught their attention. Others hang around longer before some life event, good or bad, drives them away. And others produce fruit for a while, even good fruit, but they don’t sustain it over the years and the thought that changing their garden location will make all the difference leads them up the road or down the road … often over and over.

But there are people, lots of them, who are what I called in this week of soul conditions the “producers,” who regularly bring to fruition a good yield in the life of ministry and service. Yet even here, there is room for us to ask if we are producing at the level we should, given the gifts and skills the Lord gives to each individually.

So be a producer, don’t settle for tasting, dabbling and seasonally treating church and faith like a hobby.

And we conclude this theme by asking, “How is your heart? How is your soul?”  What can you do to become a producer, or to produce at a higher level?

Weeds are a curse. I mean really, they are. In the first breath of God’s curse upon man because of Adam’s sin, God said, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.” (Genesis 3:17-18)

I’ve often when pulling weeds in a garden said aloud into the air, “Oh Adam, how could you do this to us?”  Of course, I’ve heard that women in childbirth have had some choice words for Eve as well!

The third type of soil that Jesus spoke of in his parable was that filled with weed seed as well as good seed. From Mark 4:7 …

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 

Dealing with weeds growing with grain is a persistent agricultural problem as can be seen everywhere in grain fields right now. As in the picture, we can see the tire tracks of the device called a “high boy sprayer” – those tractors with the giant, thin wheels and long arms … spraying both weed killer and fertilizer. I often think sadly about all the grain that is smashed, though I’m assured that the net positives outweigh that negative.

But really, just think about how much more of a difficulty dealing with weeds must have been in the first century world of Jesus and the disciples, a time without chemical treatments.

Jesus gave this interpretation of the third soil (and hence the third type of soul) in verses 18 and 19 … 

¹⁸ Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 

This third type of soul is what I have called “the hobbyist.”  I have had lots of seasons of life where I had varied hobbies. At the time I was into them, I would have told you that these were interests that I would have and carry for a lifetime. But many have come and gone. I was into muzzle-loading antique, historic guns for a while and even built a replica. I have not had it out of the closet in 20+ years. I was very into woodworking, and our home is filled with things I built years ago. Now, doing anything like that is a terrible chore.

Other interests I’ve stuck with throughout life … like baseball, family, pursuit of Scriptural knowledge applied to life, writing. What you really value will stay with you and inform your life.

And so it should be about the Word of God. It should not be something that is a seasonal interest or hobby, not something to think about only in terms of if it serves you well at this stage of life.

If we have not been guilty of this ourselves, we have all seen the person who gets very excited about the Lord and his Word, like after some sort of retreat or conference. But over time, the enthusiasm does not stick with them. Other events or people come along to crowd their attention.

Some of the “cares of the world” that take us away from God may be good things in their proper place, but be also out of an appropriate line of priorities. And they can become those things that consume us rather than us consuming them.

Jesus speaks of three items in the passage …

• “The worries of this life” – making a go of it, financially and relationally. This can become consuming.
• “the deceitfulness of wealth” – I know that we all find ourselves believing that if we only just had a nice chunk more of financial resources our lives would be so much easier. I’ve often told you about the one little season of my life of living with the wealthy in Texas. And I can report that they really weren’t happier, and they had to spend so much of their time worrying about what to do with it and how to protect it from a dozen dangers.
• “the desire for other things” – we all have stuff we find interesting that we’re going to get someday or do someday. Diana and I, on the whole, are rather boring people; but we have this interest in returning to Europe to see more of that continent. But we never get around to it, though we could make it the defining thing of our lives, dropping everything else.

Don’t make faith a hobby, merely something you do or use when you really need it like a tool in the garage, or a car you take for a Sunday ride. Being a person of faith, and doing faith with other people (called the church) is a way of life, not a hobby.

But I have seen decades of hobbyists in my various churches, people for whom life is going pretty well right now. Some previous crises have resolved, and coming in and enjoying what goes on around here fits their schedule nicely. Their evaluation of a church – be it this one, or any other one where they’ve given some time here and there – is honestly by the criteria of “what do I get from it, and how does it serve my interests and needs right now?”  The issue is honestly not “how can I serve God here?”

So don’t just be a hobbyist about faith. Don’t just make it a seasonal convenience that can get trumped by other interests … like the summer. Like the old song goes, “Will I see you in September, or lose you to the summer moon above?”

Warning here: Unless you are pretty close to my age (Randy writing), you might be lost in this opening illustration.

I remember a particular men’s hair product being advertised frequently on black and white TV when I was a kid. It was for something called “Brylcreem.” You put this stuff in your hair – just a dab of it, mind you – and it would make everything unruly come perfectly together. The jingle went like this: “Brylcreem — A Little Dab’ll Do Ya! Brylcreem — You’ll look so debonaire. Brylcreem — The gals’ll all pursue ya; they’ll love to run their fingers through your hair!”

A lot of folks are into “a little dab’ll do ya” sort of faith. You just expose yourself to a little bit of it here and there, and wow, it goes a long, long way.

In our passage in Mark 4, Jesus spoke of this kind of perspective with the second of the four soils he would mention in his parable…

 ⁵ Some seed fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 

The shallow nature of soil can sometimes be seen even in a person’s lawn. I have two of these conditions in my own large yard.

Being rather far into the country, we have a septic system rather than sewer connections. There is a main distribution box made of concrete that is in the back yard, rather shallow under the surface. I was worried when we built the house that I may not be able to find it if I needed to, but there’s no concern about that. Except in very wet and cool conditions, the square outline of the box location is often obvious, as the heat of the sun burns away the grass above it due to the shallow roots.

As well in my yard, I have the common Western Maryland condition of limestone rock outcroppings. A few places they stick clearly out of the ground, and I need to be careful that my mower does not experience intimate fellowship with the rock. But other places are only minimally covered by the soil, and in dry periods I am reminded of the stone just under the surface.

Again as Jesus returned later to tell the disciples of the meaning of the parable, he said this …

16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

The meaning here is that certain people start out quickly in faith. They have a joyful experience, perhaps at a retreat, a concert, a conference, or even a church service attended. It is fresh and exciting, though it lasts about as long as a green banana before it turns rather quickly to yellow, and then to brown.

I call this sort of person a “dabbler” in faith. So what makes people only dabble in a relationship with God?

The text tells us the two main things that happen: troubles in life, and persecution. Both are inevitable in this world, a spiritual sort of “death and taxes” thing.

Troubles – We live in a fallen world with broken bodies that are falling apart.  Beyond that we live here with everyone else who is as broken as we are. Nothing is more discouraging than the physical stuff that wears on us in a chronic way, or the relational stuff gone awry.

Persecution – Jesus said it would happen, saying that as the world persecuted him, it would persecute his followers. The Scriptures say that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. The world hates truth and the God of truth.

But if all you have is a dab of faith to rely upon when trials or persecutions find their way to your address, it aint’ agonna do ya.

Dabblers are not against church, they actually like it for the most part … that is, when they get there because there wasn’t anything else to do that week. They have hopes of coming regularly, but honestly, something else always come up. They want to be regular in Scripture reading and some sort of enrichment, but they never get started or make the arrangement to do it.

You don’t dabble into food once a month or so. You don’t brush your teeth every couple of weeks, just to get by. You don’t change the oil in your car once every other year. So why would dabbling in faith work out?

My father was never interested in fishing until I came along. After three daughters and at age 46, he adopted me. I guess he thought he would be an irresponsible father if he did not take his son fishing. It’s an OK hobby I suppose, but it always hit me as a bit passive for my tastes. It would have been much more interesting to me if there was a competitive element to it … like if the fish could fight back and jump out of the water and drag you in if you weren’t looking, or something like that. Dad fished for years after I was gone from home, though I never much kept up with it.

We actually did more salt water fishing than anything else, as being from New Jersey we went to “the shore” quite a lot. A major memory, be it fishing on the beach or from a pier, was the need for constant vigilance – being ever on guard that sea gulls would not swoop down while you weren’t looking or close enough to the bait, and snatch it up and fly away with a giant hunk of squid or whatever.

Birds can be a real pain that way. I remember when planting my first lawn of 1.5 acres of grass seed at the home we built in New Jersey… I spread the seed widely over the expanse of the property and covered it as best I could with dozens of bales of straw. I remember doing this in the fall of 1983 and listening to the Orioles/Phillies World Series while I spent several days on guard duty chasing away the birds that showed up to eat all of the seed I had spread.

The parable that Jesus told of the farmer planting his seed would picture much the same sort of planting technique of widely throwing grain seed over a large area. The portion of the field that annually grew a crop would likely be somewhat tilled and permeable. But on the edges of the field, or along pathways through or around the field, the ground was more hardened. And thus the seed was more exposed to ever-watching eye of the local fowls.

Jesus portrayed the scene with these words from Mark 4:3,4:

³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 

Later in the passage, as Jesus gave the interpretation of this first of four soils, it says in Mark 4:13-15 …

¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? ¹⁴ The farmer sows the word.15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 

Something I have attempted to avoid in life, though not always successfully, is that situation in a grocery store where there is an employee giving a taste test of some cheese or spread that they want to sell. When I see that, I make a circle around it … though sometimes I have had to “experience” it just to be polite. There is no way I’m going to buy it, no matter how good it is. In the words of the first George Bush, “Not gonna do it, wouldn’t be prudent.”  Frankly, I’m just hardened to being hit up that way. I’m not saying this is good or commendable; I’m just being honest about it. The fact is that my heart in hardened toward it.

And that is the way a lot of people are about God’s Word. Their heart – their soul – is simply hardened from years of resistance, and the good seed of the Word does not penetrate. Along comes the bird, Satan, and eats it before there is a chance for it to germinate in the soul.

We might call the person with this sort of soul soil “the taster.”  That is about as far as their experience with the Word of God goes. We have them in church with us every week. The seeds are landing all around them on a Sunday morning. But the heart is hard, and thoughts of a dozen other things to happen later in the day or the week ahead, or the phone speaks to them, or some other mental priority grabs their attention away. And in comes the Evil Bird and snatches the seed away.

Chances are pretty high that if you are reading this devotional, you are beyond this description. But we are never beyond the possibility of our heart being hard, our souls being distracted, to the extent that the truths of the Word around us do not penetrate. So don’t be a hard-heart, compacted soil hearer of God’s Word.

Some questions and thoughts for further discussion…

• What makes people lose the seed to Satan?
• How have you seen a hard heart in yourself or others?
• Why is Satan intent upon snatching the seed of the Word away?
• How can you actively prevent this from happening in your life of the lives of others near you?