Gleanings – Escaping the Choke Hold

Matthew 13:1-16 (From May 14, 2012)

“Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.”

And just what are these thorns? Jesus goes on to explain, “the cares of this world and the delight in riches.”

Life requires so much maintenance. If you own a house, you have unending yard work, not to mention light bulbs to change, and air conditioning filters to be replaced. Add a car and you have more to maintain which is helped but not eliminated by Express Oil and Goo Goo. And most of us own more than one car. Then there is the energy expended just to sustain human life. There is thinking about food to buy, buying food, cooking food and finally cleaning that in which the food was cooked and this before the next meal so we can begin the cycle again.

It is easy to understand how “the cares of this world” could prevent the Word from producing something in us. So how do we insure we are not consumed or choked by them? Nothing new but two words: prioritize and simplify.

Prioritize: Keep the main thing the main thing. Life is meant to be lived not maintained so never let maintenance become the goal. If being fed (the Word) is high priority, you will order your life accordingly. Listen to a podcast while you mow or run. The question becomes what else can I do while I read or hear the Word.

Simplify: Don’t try to harvest your life to the edges or, in other words, don’t fill your calendar. Parents, limit the number of extracurricular activities for children. Don’t allow any activities that conflict with church or youth group. Let your commitments expire on things trivial.

 


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