We do not know how

I listened to "Pray as you Go" this morning and it featured one of my favorite texts - about the sower who sows the seeds

"The kingdom of  God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how."

It just makes me realize how often I want to know HOW and WHEN! My life - and I think our lives - is spent sowing seeds in so many ways.  We are starting projects, building relationships, creating communities, and growing families.  It is all a form of sowing seeds of something that is in process.

I think about the Bible studies I do at church.  I have been leading two groups for a year and a half and essentially sowing seeds of love and learning.  And with both groups I can see that there is growth in our Biblical knowledge but also in our growing intimacy and comfort with the vulnerability that makes these kinds of groups special.  

This morning I am working on both a sermon for Sunday and a funeral message for tomorrow.  I sit here and "sow seeds" - putting thoughts and words together and hoping that they are going to be helpful and comforting (funeral) and compelling (sermon).  I will walk away soon and go play pickleball and trust that in the meantime, God is doing something with me and with this work so that the seed will "sprout and grow" or the project will come to a sense of completion.  I live my life trusting that when I do my part - that God will - with God's unseen presence - guide me.  

I wrote this in my journal today: 

 We do what we can and wait and see - Trust and see

These are the limitation of the sower - we do not know how the seed sprouts and grows - but we trust that it will  

I think this is called faith.

May the God of FAITH be with you,

sending you miracles and teaching you to expect them.

May God show you things that can be seen only in the darkness.

May your faith see you through the unknowns in your life,

calling you to trust the unseed presence of God in them.

May your faith serve as a beacon to light the way for other  pilgrims on the way.

May the blessing of FAITH be upon you.\

From BLESSING UPON BLESSING