“Other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”  – Matthew 13:8 

While cleaning out my parents’ house many years ago after they had passed away we came across a copy of a letter my dad had written to a judge on behalf of a young man convicted of drug possession.  The young man had once worked for my dad and had been a decent, dependable, hard-working employee.  The obvious intention of the letter was to urge leniency from the judge as my dad believed the boy to be deep down a good person.  “I think he just got mixed up with the wrong crowd,” my dad stated in his plea.

Who among us would not agree that we are all products of the people we hang out with – good or bad?  It is why parents encourage their children to participate in things like Scouts (boys and girls), team sports, music programs, church youth groups, and other positive activities, so they will be exposed to good influences.  After all, if we hang out with smart people we become smarter, with good athletes we become better athletes, with good musicians we sing or play better, or with generally good people we are more inclined to live like they live.  Likewise, hanging out with the wrong crowd will most certainly influence us in negative ways.

For many years now I’ve been meeting with a group of men on Tuesday mornings for the sole purpose of influencing each other in positive ways.  We use our time together to pray, share something about our relationship with God, what we are reading or studying to help us grow in knowledge and spirit, and things we are doing to serve God and mankind.  Thankfully, over time I have become a product of these fine men I hang out with on Tuesday mornings, helping to distance me from the wrong crowds.

Aren’t we all sort of like seeds in a way, in that how well we grow and what and how much we produce depends on the soil in which we are sown?  If the soil is shallow and rocky the roots will not grow, or if the seeds are sown among weeds the plants will get choked out.  Contrast that to the seeds Jesus describes that “fell on good soil where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”  That young man, unfortunately, had gotten sown in some bad soil.  But my dad believed that if he were transplanted into good soil that he too would produce a good crop – and I pray he did.

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  – Mark 2:27 

Back in the 1950’s and ‘60’s in the small town where I grew up one could hardly buy a loaf of bread or bottle of milk on Sunday, mostly due to “blue laws” that existed back then which prohibited the sale of most consumer goods on Sundays.  But it also seems there were more people back then who actually observed the fourth Commandment by honoring the Sabbath.  Regardless, the town was essentially closed for business that one day a week and people took the day off.

It has been said that no one on his or her death bed ever confessed, “I wish I had spent more time at the office.”  When I hear that I cannot help but think of my former colleague and dear friend Diane, an extraordinarily smart, talented, and ambitious woman who achieved tremendous success, and seemed to have bright future. She was a tireless worker who put in long hours seven days a week.  It always puzzled me, though, that she worked so much, for I held a similar position in the company, achieved comparable success, and also had a promising future, yet I admit I never put in the hours she did.  She and I had many conversations about this, but I remained unsuccessful in convincing her there were more efficient ways to get things done.  Unfortunately, it finally took its toll on her when she suddenly became ill and died shortly thereafter, at way too young an age.  I still grieve when I think of her, feeling somewhat guilty that I was unable to encourage her to cut back her hours and take a break, and teaching her the importance of sabbath time.  Had I done so, I wonder, would she still be among us, and more importantly with her family?  I wish I had convinced her to spend less time at the office.

That fourth Commandment has always been a tricky one, especially in our work ethic western culture, where we mistakenly perceive that God included it in the Ten so that we might take one day off to pay attention to Him.  Partly true I suppose, but mostly God created Sabbath for our benefit, not his.  Jesus finally had to explain it to us plain and simple, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  When I think back about my small hometown from many years ago, no one seemed to miss buying milk and bread on Sunday – or anything else.  Everyone simply worked six days, then took the seventh day off to rest, relax, and take a deep breath, not to mention those who paused to worship and give thanks to God.  And life went on without missing a beat.

“Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  – Joshua 1:9 

Did you succumb to the temptation to play the Power Ball lottery last week?  We did – to the extravagant sum of six dollars, three tickets from which we got one measly winning number.  Oh well!  But who could resist the chance to win a billion and a half dollars, regardless that odds were like ten g-zillion to one?  Okay, so what does such a silly act as wasting a few bucks on lottery tickets have to do with being strong and courageous?  Very little actually, except for what my wife so wisely reminded me: “The one sure way to not win,” she said, “is to not be in the game.”

If you have never read Brené Brown’s brilliant bestselling book from a few years back, Daring Greatly, you’re missing a great lesson on the importance of putting ourselves out there, taking a risk, allowing ourselves to be vulnerable.  “We must walk into the arena, whatever it be,” she says, “a new relationship, an important meeting, our creative process, or a difficult family conversation – with courage and the willingness to engage.  Rather than sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgment and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen.  This is vulnerability.  This is daring greatly.”  In other words, if you want to win, you’ve got to be in the game.

Following the death of Moses, Joshua was charged with the responsibility of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land.  This required guiding the people across the flood-swollen Jordan River and into battle against the fortified cities of Canaan, not an assignment for the fainthearted.  Be strong and courageous, God reminded Joshua over and over, who in turn encouraged the Israelites; for in order to gain possession of the Promised Land, sitting on the sidelines was not an option.

The same goes for us in our world today.  In order to live abundantly, sitting on the sidelines is not an option.  Rather we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen, allow ourselves to be vulnerable, to dare greatly.  The same words the Lord spoke to Joshua still speak to us today: “Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”  If you want to have any chance to succeed or be triumphant, you’ve got to step up and be in the game.

“. . . give thanks in all circumstances.”  – 1 Thessalonians 5:18 

True or false:  the one who dies with the most toys wins.  Or how about the one who has the most money wins?  What about the one who is the most brilliant and has the most advanced degrees, or the one who has reached the highest level in his or her organization or profession, the one who has traveled the most, has the most beautiful wife or debonair husband, the best athlete, the most talented artist or musician, has won the most awards, become the most famous or the most powerful?  In the end who wins?  The answer, of course, is false.  But if it is none of these great successes, who does win?

A man who wrestled mightily with this question was none other than King Solomon, the wisest and richest man who ever lived, and though he had everything and tried almost everything both good and bad, toward the end of his life came to the conclusion that nothing – I mean nothing – on this earth can fully satisfy a human’s desire for complete fulfillment.  “Meaningless! . . . Utterly meaningless!  Everything is meaningless . . . a chasing after the wind,” he declared in his essay we know as the Book of Ecclesiastes.

Alcoholics, they say, are not people who drink too much; rather people who can never drink enough.  Their thirst for alcohol – their addiction – can never be satisfied.  So it is with every earthly desire, as Solomon declares, no matter how much we have it is never enough.  Our thirst – our desire for fulfillment – is never satisfied.

I think I can identify with that, what Solomon wrestled with.  While I am far from being wealthy and wise like the great king, I have certainly had my share of good fortune at times.  But it has never been enough, often leaving me with a desire for more.  Yet, like the alcoholic, even when I manage to attain more it never seems to be enough.

So, in the end who really does win?  Recently we were asked to pick up one of our granddaughters from school, as we are sometimes called upon to do, after which we treated her to ice cream, then just hung out for a while.  It was an absolutely delightful spring day.  At some point it came over me during that brief time, what a blessed man I am.  It was a taste of what it feels like to truly win at life.  As the scriptures say, “give thanks in all circumstances,” I learned that day; for in the end, that is who wins.

“He has risen!”  – Mark 16:6 

My friend was once driving along an interstate highway out in the middle of nowhere when suddenly her car stalled.  Being near an exit she managed to coast off the freeway and out of traffic.  For twenty minutes she sat before deciding to contact AAA, but just in case she turned the key one more time.  Sure enough the car started right up as if nothing was wrong.  So, on she went, until twenty minutes down the road –the exact time her car had been stalled – she came upon a deadly multi-vehicle accident.  Had her car not mysteriously stalled my friend would surely have been one of the victims.

My friend seemed hesitant at first to share this incident with me, perhaps concerned whether I could be trusted to believe such an unbelievable story.  She did, though, either because she perceived me to be a person of deep religious faith, or maybe because I’m just whacko enough to believe in such mysterious stories.  The truth is, I’m probably a little bit of both; that is, a person of faith, but also a little whacko at times, even to the point of doubting on occasions, depending on which side of the bed I wake up on.

If I am all those things – believer, whacko, and occasional doubter – at least I am in good company.  According to scripture when Mary Magdalene and the other women discovered Jesus’ tomb open and empty, a young man sitting beside it informed them that Jesus was not there. “He has risen!” he exclaimed, then instructed them to go tell Peter and the other disciples what they had seen and heard.  But when she told them they did not believe it, not at first anyway.  They doubted such a tale, thought it was whacko.  

“Part of what it means to believe in God,” author and theologian Frederick Buechner once wrote, “is to believe in the possibility of miracle.”  Maybe that’s why my friend felt confident to share her story, because she thought I might believe in the possibility that a car-stalling angel could show up on an interstate out in the middle of nowhere.  But the greatest miracle of all, the one that has changed people throughout the centuries, from Mary Magdalene and Peter and the other disciples, the miracle that changed my own life and has given me both peace and purpose, is Jesus Christ raised from the dead.  “He has risen!” exclaimed the young man.  May this greatest of all miracles give you peace and purpose as well.  The Lord is risen.  He is risen indeed!  Happy Easter.