Simplify: Five Minute Friday

Photo by Victoria Bilsborough on Unsplash

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday where we freewrite for five minutes flat on the prompt, Simplify.

Simplify.  Ahhhh.  One of my favorite words.  It was actually my word about 7 years ago.  It started a string of words that just seemed to blend all together.  But I believe “simplify” or “simplicity” was the first.

I became very interested in minimalism a few years after that. Minimalism is the art of simplicity.  It is reducing the amount of clutter and making room for the important.  That is a practice I have tried to implement in my own life.

For Believers I believe simplifying is incredibly important. In Mark 4, in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus talks about the different type of ground seed is sown on.  Later he explains the parable to His disciples.  

The third type of ground is where the cares of this life and things of this world come in and choke the word, causing it to be unfruitful.  What does that mean?  I believe it means that when we are so consumed with worry about anything, or when we are bombarded with an endless amount of things to do, and stuff to care for, the Word can have no place in our lives.  It has no room to grow and produce fruit.

The good news is that this is something we can change, simply by simplifying.  We can simplify our thoughts.  We can simplify our consumption.  We can make room for God’s Word and it will produce in our lives.

Mark 4: The Parable of the Sower

Did you know that you can change what kind of ground you are?  In Mark 4, Jesus talks about the parable of the sower.  We know that the seed is the Word of God, and we know that the ground is people.  All four people receive the Word of God, but it affects them in four different ways.

And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.  Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

-Mark 4:13-20

The first person is an Unbeliever.  The seed was sown by the wayside.  How do you change that?  You receive Jesus into your life and become a new creation by being born again.

The second person is a Believer, but not rooted.  How do you change that?  Ephesians 3:17 tells us to get ourselves established in the love of Christ.  Learn about how much God loves you.

The third person is a Believer also, but "stuff" is interfering with them being fruitful. How do you change that?  Let it go.  Remove those things from your life that will keep you from receiving and producing all the goodness God has for you.  For me, I feel like this is where minimalism comes in.  It is an ongoing thing.  You can also watch what you focus your attention on, what goes in your eyes and ears.  Jesus said, "the eye is the lamp of the body," in Luke 11:14.

The fourth person is a Believer also.  But this one is producing fruit.  And when He says bears "fruit", it would be fruit of life in the Kingdom of God, the fruit of the Spirit, not something we think is fruitful.  Faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit.  Faith is produced when the Word is sown in someone's life and it grows, when there is nothing hindering it.  Notice one more thing.  The fruit is at different amounts.  This can change too, as you grow, and hear the Word and believe.  

The fourth person is where we all want to be, and can be. None of the other types of ground are set in stone. Just like a garden can become more fruitful with effort, so can the life of a Believer change when we believe the right things about Jesus.

This is My Story: Zelma

“What we do now echoes in eternity.”-Marcus Aurelius

There are people that come into your life on purpose, to make a lasting impression and impact on our hearts.  One of those people for me was a lady named Zelma.

I was in the fifth grade and my parents had just gotten separated.  My mom and brother and I had moved to a new place, and my mom started taking us to church again.  On Wednesday nights, our church had dinner together, which was lovely by the way.  After that we divided up and went to our own classes according to age.

I don’t remember everything about my class, but I do remember Zelma.  She had bright red hair.  She was an older lady and she was my teacher.  I don’t remember anything she said, but I remember I did not feel alone in her presence.

I was kind of a mess at the time.  My world had just been rocked to pieces.  My parents were in the process of ending their marriage.  I was in the 5th grade, an awkward time.  We were going to a new church, living in a new house, with no dad, and my mom had just given me a terrible haircut.  Go ahead, you can laugh at the last part.  I felt like Samson having his locks shorn.

So, I am in this class feeling awkward around new people, and here is this Bible teacher woman who is reaching out to me and welcoming me into this new environment.  I don't remember all the details, but I do remember that she removed some of the loneliness, and that she gave me a new Bible.  We hadn’t been to church in a while I don’t think, so this was a reintroduction to the things of God.

Sometimes we don’t realize that the smallest of efforts can influence people for eternity.  We are sowing just the smallest of seeds that may seem extremely insignificant, but can have lasting, eternal impact.  I am so thankful that this woman loved God, and took just a minute to love little, messed-up me.

As the years went on, I drifted from God, only to come back to Him in my early twenties.  As I look back, I realize that that because Zelma planted a tiny seed in my heart, God was able to water that seed to produce fruit in my life for His Kingdom and bring this sweet little lamb home.

I still have the Bible.

"The sower sows the word."-Mark 4:14