A War Against Rocks

Every spring farmers in my area wage a war against rocks. They walk their fields collecting the stones that have risen to the surface during the winter. Pebbles, stones, and rocks—some larger than your head—magically appear year after year. The surprising thing is that even though they spend hours hauling rocks away each year, the next year there are still more rocks. Fighting rocks is a normal never-ending part of being a farmer in the Midwest USA. 

As Christ followers we too are engaged in a war on rocks. Daily our hearts are pitted against temptations, interruptions, and difficulties. These are like rocks that rob us of joy and distract us from our journey of faith. It takes consistent, intentional rock removal to keep the soil of our hearts ready to receive the words of God.

Parable of the Sower

In Mark 4:1-20 Jesus tells a story of a farmer spreading seed. Some of the seed falls on the hard path, some in the rocks, some in the thorns, and some in good soil. To be honest, in the past, I’ve always thought of this parable in terms of salvation. When someone hears the Good News, will they respond? If they do respond, will they stay the course? But as I reflected and studied this parable recently, I came across an article that challenged me to see this parable from a new perspective. What if this parable extends beyond just salvation and into our everyday lives? What if Jesus is inviting us to seek to cultivate “good soil” in every aspect of our life, every day?

A Daily Task

In Mark 4 Jesus describes the seed as “the word” (verse 14). As pastors and ministry leaders we interact with God’s truth and word each day. Through truths we glean when reading the Bible, conversations with other believers, trials we face, sermons we listen to, lessons we learn, and worship songs we sing—God speaks to us in a variety of ways. And depending on the condition of our heart, sometimes those truths fall on good soil and sometimes not. 

I know how easy it is for me to be distracted by my own desires. How easy it is for rocks or thorns in the form of sin, deception, or selfishness to creep into my life. They lead me to believe things about myself, others, my struggles, my church, or my culture that aren’t true. Sometimes they are subtle, sometimes not so much, but they are there. And I know that, when I fail to remove those rocks from my heart, they prevent the truths of God from taking hold. 

How’s the soil of your heart? I want to encourage you as a leader to wage war against the rocks in your heart. Here are three suggestions for doing that.

1. Respond to the conviction that comes from your sin. If your sin of impatience, doubt, anger, lust, judgement, or any other sin I could name, brings a sense of conviction, acknowledge it and bring it before God in repentance.

2. Continue to renew your mind with God’s truth each day. In Colossians 3:2 Paul reminds the readers to “set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Soak your heart and mind in God’s truth daily. 

3. Ask God for keener ears to hear and eyes to see. I believe the Holy Spirit is always speaking, but sometimes we just don’t listen. Invite the Lord to clear the confusion of voices around you so you can discern the Spirit with clarity. 

The task of clearing rocks is never-ending. But as sinners saved by grace, we don’t have to haul them away alone. God wants to help you identify and remove the things that come between you and your relationship with Him. 

I pray that each of you would wage war against the rocks in your life and find the soil of your heart fertile and good so that… “you can hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown.” (Mark 4:20)