Modern parable continued

in case you missed the first part of this modern parable, click on the link below to read it:

https://soulscientistblog.com/2022/10/23/modern-parable/

click on link below to listen to modern parable continued post:

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/71joE5zMyub

Soil is most vulnerable to compaction and destruction of natural soil structure (soil aggregation) when it is wet. For when soil particles are wet, they are more susceptible to being crushed together and thus, losing naturally occurring porosity between the particles. Soil pores are essential for water and air movement in the soil environment. If such porosity is lost from soil through its being repeatedly walked on, driven over, or plowed when wet, then compaction occurs. And this compaction is then easily seen in hard flattened areas across the surface of a field or in hardpan layers usually 6-12 inches below the soil surface at the outer edge of plow penetration depth. Hardpan layer development is one of the easiest and most destructive occurrences in mismanagement of agricultural soils. Hardpan layers are also one of the most expensive issues in soil management because of monies lost from crop productivity or monies required for their elimination.  

Similarly, people’s souls are most fragile when wet with grief, loss, or pain. If I am careless with my actions or words with someone grieving or in pain, I can easily trample the soil of his soul and leave a hardened path of selfishness or apathy in his life. Worse yet, if I or others continue stomping through his life without love or concern for his grief and pain, the path of rejection becomes broader, deeper, and more susceptible to becoming that hardened pathway of soil described in our focal passage in Matthew 13. Mismanagement of my words, actions, and timing with someone vulnerable and wet with pain can easily result in hardpan layers of anger or rejection against the God I claim to represent in a false or disordered love (see Matthew 22:36-40). Damage can happen even if that is not my intention.

Yet, thankfully, just as the compacted ground under our feet can be softened and returned to health with careful management, resource allocation, and time, God’s grace can return trampled souls to being good ground rich with life and hope in His perfect timing. This soil scientist is evidence that God can and God does restore good ground from that which seemed lost forever from being pulverized into dust by my and others’ sins. Nothing or no one is beyond the grace of our Good God.

And that restoration, be it of the the ground under my feet or in my soul, is the very good gift of a very Good God in His glorious grace! Thanks be to God for He is always at work in me and the world all around me!

Stay tuned for more of modern parable coming here in the blog next week! AND for Good Ground, Volume 2 coming soon too!

Like I said last week, please go to Matthew 13 for the original telling of this parable by Jesus of the seed, soil, and sower – only He gives the best in this and everything!

Good Ground, Volume 1 now available for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and many other online book distributors, including the publisher – Northeastern Baptist Press at the link below:

https://www.nebpvermont.com/books

written by and copyrighted to Beth Madison, Ph.D., 2022