CONTENT WITH MY CROP

Matthew 13:3-8

(NKJV)

Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

I have told you before that we raised watermelons when I was a kid growing up in Arkansas. A 30 fold crop would have been nothing to sneeze at. We would have been happy with a 30 fold crop. Until we met the guy who had a 60 fold crop. Then we would have wanted more. Of course, the 60 fold guy would be happy until he met the 100 fold guy.

Now, good can come from wanting a bigger harvest. You can learn ways to improve your planting. You can learn ways to improve your watering and tending to your plants. You can learn ways to utilize what you have to work with to best of its potential.

Bad can come as well. The competitive drive can cause you to over work your land and your workers. You can damage the land for future crops in the drive for the one big crop.

The question that I had was am I as content with my 30 fold as I would be with 60 or 100? Am I satisfied to be the good ground that produces 30 fold? Is it enough? Or does the comparison to other's harvest get me? Does it cause me to stumble in my planting? In my laboring for the "number" instead of the harvest I was made for?

I think it is clear from this verse we are not all going to achieve the same harvest. But that doesn't make one better than the other. After all, it was all good ground. What I need to strive for, and ask Christ every single day to help me with, is making the most of my seed and the land I am to plant in. To work hard and diligently in the planting season I have. Nurture those seeds and then watch as the harvest is reaped.

And be content.

Because the crop He has given me is enough.

For Him.

And it's all for Him.