Sow What - investing for the future

“The truth is, a kernel of wheat must be planted in the soil. Unless it dies it will be alone--a single seed. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who despise their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:24,25 NLT


Last night I was chatting over Facebook with my good friend Tong in Thailand. We were working through some of the finer details in preparation for an upcoming ministry exposure and equipping trip to Australia for Tong and a team of emerging Thai leaders this October. Looking forward to that!

We also chatted about some of the ongoing challenges that are associated with investing into an emerging generation of young people as we seek to develop healthy disciple-making teams, processes and programs; agreeing that it can be difficult, and as this is a spiritual endeavour then it seems that whenever God opens a door for effective ministry this somehow invites various degrees of opposition, confusion and even persecution.

As I think about my recent dialogue with Tong I’m reminded of the incredible sacrifices he (and others on his team) make to stand up for Jesus, to support and shepherd the local youth, to liaise with church leaders and parents, to visit local high schools, to build into young lives – doing whatever it takes to invest personally into a generation of young Thai’s in order that they may come to know and follow Jesus.

This also reminds me of the words and example of Jesus, especially in terms of personal sacrifice. Not long before making the ultimate sacrifice Jesus said; “The truth is, a kernel of wheat must be planted in the soil. Unless it dies it will be alone--a single seed. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives.” (John 12:24)

The point Jesus seems to be making is this; as the germ of life in a grain of wheat can only pass into other grains by departing from the original grain and leaving it dead, so too, the life which was in Jesus could only pass into his disciples by his death.

In vs 25 Jesus goes on to say; “Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who despise their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

The point…the principle here…? It has to do with what we might call the law of growth. That is, if a grain of wheat were to saves itself, it would remain but one grain until it rots; but if it is sown into the ground, and yields up its life-germ as a sacrifice to the law of growth, it then multiplies itself thirty, sixty, or a hundred fold and continues its multiplication through succeeding generations…

The implications for the true believer here are huge.

If we want to get serious about impacting our local community landscape for Jesus, then we’ve simply got to be prepared to die to self; to sacrifice self; being willing to yield our self, our personal agendas, personal comforts, even our own preferences and traditions we might be used to, to invest ourselves into the soil, to effect the law of growth and so produce a harvest of new lives.

If we want our lives to count for something beyond the moment and beyond ourselves (I tick the 'yes' box here) then may God motivate us to get serious about sowing into PEOPLE...sowing deep into people’s lives, whatever the cost.

I’ll continue to be praying for Tong and his team in this regard…