The thorns are the only location in Jesus’ parable that provides its own peril:
“Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.”
The path had birds to snatch away the seeds; the rocks had the hot sun to wither and scorch them. But when we try to plant the seeds of sacrificial love and other-directedness amid a thicket of competing claims… look out.
We sow love in a very thorny landscape. The cares of the world and the lure of wealth, which is what Jesus likened the thorns in his story to, are as strong as ever in our western culture, while traditional moral and religious norms have become weakened. Some churches respond to diminishing fruitfulness by trying to place the benefits they offer among those other lures – “Look at the return you can get for your investment!” or they offer their own version of the competition, church-based banks, health clubs and the like.
The competing claims of wealth, family, security, recreation, status are a given. How do we embrace those goods without worshipping them? How do we navigate around them, or help move seeds to healthier soil – especially when those seeds are us?
What most chokes your desire to be connected to God?
For me, it's time and the to-do list. Maybe for you as well?
What can we do about that? How might we invite Jesus into our time management, or lack thereof, and our to-do lists? Some people put alerts on their devices to remind them to stop and pray. Others make sure they stop and take a prayer walk each day.
If it’s our relationships or our work that loom larger than our God-connection, maybe we can invite God to be more fully a part of those areas in our lives, and figure out how.
Today, let’s contemplate the thorns in which we occasionally find ourselves, and pray for them to be transformed into roses. God has an amazing way of taking what we offer, and not removing it from our lives, but consecrating it for us, making it holy, as God is ever making us holy.
We need not fear the choking thorns when we turn daily to the source of our breath.
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