Sow Your Interests In The Good Land

Sow your interests in the good land, that you can reap a bountiful harvest.

Jesus always read the signs of the time to speak to the people around him. He could distinctively and clearly explicate the situations, irrational rituals and burdensome traditions through his thought-provoking parables. He used to mesmerize the crowd, pronouncing each word authoritatively, unfurling the dark spots that remained untouched for years. More so, triggering the lot through parables loaded with challenges and queries which provoked them to ponder and prune the unessential aspects of religious life.

Sowing your interest means, directing your life prudently and meticulously in the right way as per your choices. One has to consider this: decisions and choices are absolutely OURS. Blaming others or getting disturbed over the failures are mere waste of time. Hence, one has to orient one’s interests and sow in such places that would bring about a return of a hundred fold.

The Parable of the Sower

The Parable of the Sower (Mt: 13:1-8) is one of its rare kinds. Recline on a chair for a few minutes and contemplate, suppose you were a sower and the seeds are your interests. Where would you sow? If you would sow your interests on the bare surface of a road, won’t people think of you as an insane person, because sowing the seeds (interests) on a path (a mean work) an undertaking that is detrimental to God and to the society) is ascribed as immaturity. There isn’t any possibility for its growth for God’s spirit doesn’t rest on such works. At least the seeds on the path were useful to the birds of the air, but interests and energy invested on mean works are neither helpful to the sower nor to anyone on the earth.

God has given us the freedom to execute our interests productively, but what happens to most of us? Unessential aspects of the world seem to us more essential (priorities are driven away). Material things and unproductive pleasures sway a person for a few minutes, hours, days etc but they may have ill-effect on him/her for the rest of the years (sometimes, for the rest of life). But happiness will hover over us when we put our hands to pursue worthwhile things.

There are some people who are ambiguous about everything that happen around them, even anticipating calamities on the auspicious days. They are skeptics by thinking, inhaling pessimistic oxygen. They are the ones who consciously sow their interests on a rocky ground. They know that there is depth in the soil and no growth is possible, yet willingly they would dive in only, to be doomed. Perhaps, there is need to introspect and ask ourselves: Are we also one like them? Blaming God for the inconvenience and discomfort that we make in our lives?

Our choices shape our future

Our choices play a vital role in our lives. Our choices shape our future. As the adage goes; you are the architect of your life. If our foundation is strong, what comes over it would remain strong. If our interests like foundation are placed on the right place with the concomitant requirements no calamities could over-power it.

On the flip-side are people with thorny characters who always remain thorn in others flesh. Just as thorns which choke the plants from growing, so also persons of this character become a stumbling block in others lives. They neither grow, nor allow others to grow. For them the motto, ‘together to the top’ seems ridiculous and absurd. If one has to sow their interests in the midst of these people (ground), they would harvest a bumper crop yielding HUNDRED FOLD OF GRIEF AND SORROWS. Let us sow our interests in a fertile ground and God himself will escort us a hundred fold harvests.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, today we offer all our desires, goals, knowledge and our interests. We accept our limitations and believe that you can do wonders with our interests than what we can. Inspire us, talk to us and guide us into the right path, so that we may sow our interests on the fertile ground and reap the fruits. May our lives inspire others, shower your torrential blessings upon us that we may vibrate your life and love to others whom we meet in our day today life. This we ask through Christ our Lord, AMEN.

- – - written by H. Infant Vinoth SVD