the parable of the Sower

I was asked in a comment why I had said leaving ywbb was against what I feel to be what I am called to do. So I will answer that. Not that I will go back, just that I will answer.

Matt 13: 3b - 8

A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on the rich soil, and it produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.


I had always thought of this as the parable of the ground. Try to make my ground as fertile as possible so that when I receive grace - seed - from God, I might be able to maximize its usefulness. I need to tend to my own soil, get the rocks out and the thorns out. I think that is a wonderful way to read the story.

But the title of this in my Bible, and I assume most, is the Parable of the Sower. And we are called to be sowers like the sowers in this story. We are called to take our seed and spread it and not worry about which bit of it hits the path and which bit of it hits the thorns and which bit gets into the good soil. Just chuck it and go.

I think my time, especially recently, at the ywbb has been very critical of others. I have been trying to get people to see things the way I see them. I don't think that is nefarious in intent, but that I have such a sense of purpose and meaning in my life right now, and I want to tell other widows about it. But I need to do that by casting the seed wherever I can chuck it. I have spent too much time worrying about the rocks in their ground.

But leaving is taking my seed and going home. And that is why I shouldn't do it. And yet, I am incapable right now of going back.