Sowing

             Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8)

Usually, when people talk about these verses, they think in terms of seeds. At least, I have. If you plant tomato seeds and you get no tomatoes but giant hogweed, there’s a problem. Either the tomato seeds were bad or they weren’t tomato seeds – and you probably need to call in professionals to deal with the hogweed. (PSA in case you don’t know: DO NOT TOUCH GIANT HOGWEED! It looks like giant Queen Anne’s Lace but it’s NASTY to skin.)

The seed idea is there, but there’s another parallel that is also critical. Yes, we should expect to reap what we sow, but where we sow, into what soil, and from what soil we reap will also determine whether our harvest gives us destruction or life. You can take perfectly good, high quality tomato seeds, and plant one in a toxic dump and the other in the cleanest, healthiest loam. It’s possible that the tomato grown in the toxic dump will produce a marvelous plant and good-looking fruit. It’s possible but chances are better that the plant will not do well. The tomato planted and grown in the good soil is likely to do better. Even if it doesn’t, I would not trust the fruit of the plant grown in the toxic dump, even though it was a good seed.

We can plant bad seeds or good seeds, and get the crop we’ve planted. But we can also plant good seeds (or bad seeds) in good soil or bad soil. We can plant in the flesh or in the Spirit, and harvest from them what they are capable of growing. We can, for example, plant good seeds of caring for the oppressed or caring for the environment. If we plant those good seeds in the toxic dump that is our flesh we will reap fruit from the plant that grows in the flesh, and be poisoned or become toxic. If we plant those seeds in the good soil of the Spirit, we will get a healthy plant that will better resist diseases and pests and produce fruit that will not only nourish us, but others as well.

This is the situation we often face today. There are people who want to do good, but they are sowing into their flesh and perhaps into the flesh of others. They are sowing in a toxic dump and they become toxic.  They insist that it’s good, and faster. It will solve the problems the world faces and make the people around them be and do what is good. But it doesn’t.

Instead, we need to plant seeds in the Spirit. Even if it isn’t the best seed, the Spirit will provide the grace needed to make it the best plant it can be.