This past Sunday we got to witness the second youth-led Wildfire Sunday in LifeSpring history. From worship to ushering, Holy Communion to announcements, and testimony sharing to speaking the message, we are so proud of what Wildfire has been able to accomplish and how they have been growing individually and as a group.
It’s hard to believe that 5-10 years ago, some of those same kids were running around, terrorizing what we now call our Jireh and Rapha classes (Gr. 2-3 and 4-5). One of the only differences between the kids we have now and the youth we saw on Sunday is the maturity of the seeds that are planted in them. There are so many good seeds in our children and our own lives today, but trees do not grow to bear fruit in a few days, weeks, months, or even years.
You might be frustrated with your kids, because you told them a hundred times to not do something, or with yourself, because you’ve spent so long learning and doing something that seems pointless, but seeds (even and especially the ones God plants) take their time to grow. Even when they grow, it can be years before you or anyone can see the fruit God has planned for your life.
Our job is not to focus on the fruit we can or cannot see, but to ensure the soil that those seeds are falling on is good soil. Are we open to get on our knees and weed out the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth that threaten to choke the things God has planted in our children and in us? Are we willing to trust in God’s timing even when the world tells us that something must be wrong with our seeds because they aren’t growing as fast as everybody else’s?
“The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Matthew 13:22-23