Take care how you listen!

I love spring in Texas. Everything is blooming all at once, and the lure of seed packets practically calls to me from the shelves of the garden center. “Pick me! I’m beautiful! What you see on the packet is exactly what I’ll look like in your garden!” So I buy a seed packet of Molten Lava amaranthus with the hopes that what is pictured on the seed packet will grow into a gorgeous plant in my garden. 

Like many who arrive in Texas from other locales, like yankee-land or California, I needed help to succeed in gardening in Texas. I had several friends who helped me get started. In addition to their help, I decided to follow Neil Sperry. I listened to him on the radio, bought his “boot book”, which I read it from cover to cover, and recently I purchased his new book with the adirondack chair on the front.

One Saturday while listening to him, I decided to give call him on his live radio show on KLIF. This was a big step for me as I’ve never called a talk show. I asked him about starting a fall garden from seed. When he asked me how I planned to do that in the dead-heat of July and August, I told him I planned to cut my empty toilet paper rolls in half, fill them with good soil and start the seedlings in part shade. Was it my imagination, or was there a slight pause as if to say “you’re going to do what?!” His advice was basically to ditch the toilet paper rolls and use 4” pots! Or buy transplants. He put heavy emphasis on the later!

Slightly chagrined, but not to be totally humiliated, I blamed my engineer-father who grew up during the depression; he taught me to do everything as cheaply as possible, even how to make my own scratch pad from full sheets of paper. (Dad then helped me calculate the savings for making my own scratch pad!)

After I hung up I realized I had called for advice, and I had gotten it, even if it included me making a fool out of myself. The question for me was, “Was I going to take his advice??”

Sometimes I listen to God’s word like that. God gives me advice I don’t always want to hear, especially if it includes pointing out what I am doing is wrong. For example:

In Hebrews 10:25 God encourages believers to assemble together to worship; but someone might say, “No, I can do that at home watching a television- preacher.” 

In Galatians 5:13 God says serve one another in love; but someone might say, “No, I’d like to be served first, like Diotrephes”, (3 John 9).

In James 4:10 God says humble yourselves and I will exalt you. But someone might think, “I’ll exalt myself because I like applause.”

If I really want to grow spiritually, I need to listen to the ultimate Master Gardener, Jesus himself.

Jesus taught his disciples in Luke 8 about spiritual life using gardening from seed as an analogy. Those of you familiar with the parable know he presents four different growing conditions, and the results. What He also taught them was how to listen to Him when He taught the Word. If you are not familiar with the parable, read it in Luke 8:4-18. When He spoke about seeds and soils in Luke 8 He knew exactly what He was talking about. After all, He’s the one who created the first garden; “without Him, nothing was made that has been made,” John 1:3.

He taught that many seeds sprout very easily on their own with the proper conditions; but others, without proper care, are devoured by birds, choked out by weeds, blocked by rocks, and withered by the sun and wind. A key factor for spiritual growth in Jesus’ parable is the soil. 

Has His Word fallen on by “the side of the road...and the devil has snatched it away”? Was the soil rocky? Those seedlings grew for a while but did not maintain firm roots because of the rocks, “the cares and worries of this life.” Or perhaps it was the thorns, the “pleasures and riches of the world” which choked the life out of the seedling. Or was the soil good, producing an abundance of crops?

Jesus also mentioned other factors when He explains the parable to his disciples, He describes three other important attributes of the fruitful life: perseverance, listening, and holding the word “fast.” 

He says to His bewildered disciples, “the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.” And about listening He says, “So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him."                 

Some of us come to faith in Jesus at an early age. We heard the gospel, believed it, and received eternal life, as it says in John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name….” The problem for many of us later on is the conditions we allow in our lives, and the lack of diligence to maintain proper growing conditions. We are not exercising diligence to listen, hold fast, or persevere.

I can’t count the number of times I have started seeds in good soil only to come out the door three hours too late and see that I left the new seedlings in the sun and wind two hours too long! Our spiritual lives can be like that. Too long in the wrong conditions equals spiritual death.

For our spiritual lives to be abundant we must have all three factors, perseverance, listening, and holding the word “fast.”  My least favorite aspect would have to be perseverance. Why? Because perseverance requires patience. Often my tendency is to give up if I what I thought should happen right away takes too long. 

Gardening has actually taught me some patience.The problem of patience as it relates to spiritual growth is addressed in James 5:7 using a patient farmer as an illustration. It says, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains.”     

Growth in my spiritual life takes time, which takes patience. Spiritual gardens have to be tended to. Just hearing the word and walking away without making the necessary changes to the soil of my heart will leave me with no growth.  

I found this out the hard way with my first actual garden; it was a tiny plot of dirt deeded to me by my father! Excitedly, I scattered the seeds from the beautifully illustrated seed packet on the bare ground he had cleared for me and walked away. Of course, nothing grew! I wanted the beauty of the packet to magically appear, but I didn’t want the work that went with it--the watering,  thinning out plants, or pulling weeds. I didn’t tend to my garden.

With God’s help we can have and maintain the right conditions, and tend our spiritual garden. Don’t despair over apparent lack of spiritual growth. If we are tending the garden of our spiritual life by listening, holding fast, and persevering, just wait. Be patient, “For nothing is hidden that will not become evident, nor anything secret that will not be known and come to light,” Luke 8:18.

Seeds can’t be seen for a long time, depending on the variety. They lay hidden in the dirt waiting for the right time to germinate; and then it takes time for them to bloom or bear fruit.  Spiritual seeds are similar. The only thing that is immediate in this parable is when the listener believes the word; such life, our new life in Him, begins the moment we believe. The growth that ensues takes listening, holding fast and perseverance.

Some day what we have done with His word will be evident to all; if the results are not evident now, they will be later when we appear before His throne, cf. 1Corinthians 3.

So when we hear the word of God, “be careful how you (we) listen.” If we listen carefully and apply what we hear, spiritual growth will result. When we allow God to help us with our spiritual garden, some day God will show the produce of our garden. Live to hear His approval; some day He will say, “What a beautiful plant! It looks better than the picture on the packet!!”

By the way, I think I will listen to Neil Sperry and buy transplants!