There is a big pull from this world to demand all your time and lock you into signing it away. It seems that it is not enough to have a job anymore. You must be dedicated enough to do what seems to be compulsory overtime. You must do the job and also complete training – or do the job and also keep up with new developments. The pressure demands all your energy, cuts family time, deprives you of sleep and increases stress as you push towards deadlines.
“They are the lucky ones!” you cry. “They have a job!”
Without a job, the worries of this life are constantly pressing. Where is the next meal coming from? How can I pay the mortgage? How is it even possible to stay out of debt?
These are real problems in a real world. Surely it must feel like the world is slowly choking you, and yet…
In the parable of the seeds, Matthew 13, this is someone who heard the word. They received the seed. They received all that potential but they didn’t give some time to planting it, nurturing it, watering it. They had problems – real life battles, huge worries, and gave their time to this.
“When you are in that situation, how is it possible not to give time to it?” you cry. “You are being unrealistic!” Yet the choking goes on.
If you are in that impossible situation where the worries can be piled high and life is choking you, you know you are in a bad place. You know your life has thorns and you don’t have the answers – yet you once held in your hand that seed of potential. You once heard the word that would have been fruitful.
Do you want to stay in that panicking, choking place? Can God give your mind rest? Can he make a way where there is no way?
What fruitfulness could you have, if you just paid attention to that seed again?