It StaRTs WiTH a sEEd

I grew up in a place that many called the "Ghetto".

I grew up in a place that was considered a "jungle". (What that made me I don't know!)

I grew up in a place that was considered dangerous and often for very good reasons.

Now I have my own home for the second time. I have a beautiful wife and beautiful children and a small army of bright, intelligent grandchildren full of promise.

I have a very good job that allows me to do some things I used to only dream about way back then. 

I have more blessings than I can count and even with all that said, I realize that as much as I had to look over my shoulder on the streets growing up, I have to pause often even now, in the security of my office building....or in the very busy local Wal-Mart.....or within the confines of my local ministry....or even on a plane or a cruise ship. You name it. At any time, our entire lives can change dramatically.

I remember where I was and what I was doing when my heart stopped beating on September 11, 2001. I was on my job with tears in my eyes, staring at a television screen, wondering all kinds of things all in a dynamic, frenzied flurry of emotions. Why did I leave my hometown? Was it worth it? What if I was still living there and I got the job I applied for in that very same building? Was any of my family and many friends in the building at that moment everything went wrong? Is my mother alive?

The questions were dizzying and I felt nauseous. I don't believe I did an ounce of work after I slunk away from that monitor. All I could do was cry and attempt to make phone calls and think horrible thoughts that tormented me for days after the fact. My mother was supposed to be in the WTC that morning for an appointment but she cancelled it days prior. That was good news for her but my heart was heavy for so many others. I chose one of the most horrific moments in my history to make a point. The man or men in that plane that conceived such an evil plan have something in common with many people in our world right now that are shooting up politicians in Alexandria, Virginia, mass murdering fellow employees at a UPS facility in San Francisco, and murdering little children and faculty in a little elementary school in Sandy Hook (despite what some people say). If you dare to dig deep enough, you may find more commonalities even closer to home. Everything that we see fully developed into something vicious, heartless, and ugly all started with a single seed. 

Before I say this, please understand that this is not an examination into these horrific events. Even as a minister of the Gospel, I cannot provide insight into the hows and whys of these life changing events from either the perspective of the innocent, the guilty, or the bystanders that view this from a distance. I am just posing some questions to ponder because at this point, we really need to.

I am truly concerned about how much we can see in our world and become casual about what we see in our homes. We have become desensitized and I believe it has grown much worse since the last time I said that. Our children can be bullies and tormentors of other little children and we can justify it as just "kids being kids". Our sons can rape young college students and a parent can shrug it off as just "boys being boys". Now we have grown men and women who want to burn a whole country to the ground that they were perhaps blessed to live in, compared to some other alternatives. And every single one of those circumstances started with a seed. I have real questions about what the future holds for our youngest. They will likely bear the weight of all the missed opportunities, failed parenting, and in many cases, acts of willful blindness. I listen to my grandchildren being shunned because their classmates sit and play and eat away from them because their parents teach them they can't play with "brown people". They are threatened with "going to jail" or being "burned with fire", or with death. Threats made by little children and teenagers in some cases. My mother was adamant about me going to Catholic school for my elementary and intermediate school years because she thought it would be safer for me. Ha! Now look!

It took me years to understand why Scripture uses so many analogies from an agricultural standpoint but it is the heart and viewpoint of God. Imagine if we all thought like this BEFORE we committed acts or BEFORE we allowed an influence into our lives or BEFORE we made a major decision or BEFORE we gave into an inclination. How different might our lives and perhaps our world be. We can't play with matches and then sit back and marvel at how our world is set on fire! If we plant and water a seed (which can be as simple as a thought, a desire, or an inclination), and continue to give attention to it, it is going to grow. The question is will we like what comes forth. I'm getting the impression that it doesn't matter what's happening in the world until it begins to affect "their" world. That's becoming the reality of the world we ALL live in.

A quick, funny (in my wife's opinion - I'm not laughing) story: We have been cultivating a small garden in the backyard. We have everything from string beans to lettuce to the unstoppable collard greens (growing all year round through torturous weather conditions) to kale to green peppers. We have nearly twenty different plants and a half dozen different herbs growing back there but the biggest monster and bully of the garden is the tomatoes. I would guess they are the beefsteak variety. We planted a little seed (literally) but neither my wife or I realized that there were multiple plants in each seed. I still can't explain that very well. Needless to say, we have more than a dozen separate stalks with multiple, huge tomatoes growing. I don't eat those tomatoes much at all so we have a problem. The point is that we just planted very little and unbeknownst to us, it has outgrown everything else and has overtaken the rest of the garden. It was probably the smallest seeds we planted and the smallest amount but it has overrun everything else and has taken the spotlight away from the other plantings. The tomatoes are out of control. It goes without saying that we are not planting those again next year. We didn't expect it. We couldn't control it. We can either let them grow or uproot them so they can't.

If one would dare to take one of these infamous figures in our nation's history and peel back the layers of their life from now back to their childhood. You know what you'd likely find? A very methodically laid groundwork for who they have become today but a beginning similar to our own and generations before and since. "Normal" households with loving parents. Tragedy. Financial problems. Seed. Poverty. Lack. Neglect from a parent. Seed. Bullying. Rejection. Keeping secrets from your family. Bad influences in the neighborhood. Seed. Anger, self loathing, isolation. Water. Brooding over the unfairness. Why did he have to die? It should've been me. Water. Kids will be kids. They're just children. They'll outgrow it. She asked for it. She wanted it. Water. I agree with you. You should do something about this! Water. Oh, she was just playing! She wouldn't hurt a fly! Water. It's not fair! It's their fault! Water. They rejected you and turned their backs on you! Water. They laughed at you and mocked you. They think they're better than you! Water. If it wasn't for "them", this would be a better place and you would have a better life! You wouldn't have lost your loved one. Water. You would be wealthy but now you have nothing! Water. They must pay. They are the enemy! Water. Water. Water.

Whatever comes next but it all starts with a single seed. A seed that we are all susceptible to have "planted in our garden". None of us are exempt. Maybe your life doesn't resemble any of these things and you have had a marvelous upbringing, with all the pomp and circumstance that comes with it. Maybe you have it all figured out and generations after you will glean from your wisdom and your formula for success. The rest of us are in a daily struggle where our gardens are susceptible to seeding and watering, and of course, a harvest.

What kind of harvest do you want in your garden? Ponder this seriously. Protect your garden vigorously.