Parable of Sower (2)
I have to say that for much of my life I was baffled by the way people could brush Truth (with a capital ‘T’) aside as if it were some kind of nuisance. Much of the time when I encountered Truth myself, I tried to change because I wanted to be the best that God wanted me to be. But there were some people in my life that blasted me out of the water whenever I confronted them with Truth they needed to hear. I always felt I must be doing something wrong. That I was betraying the Truth somehow by not presenting it well enough or not being good enough to have it not thrown back in my face.
What I needed to know is that Jesus pours out truth all the time that is trampled underfoot, overrun, dismissed or even hated. The seed of truth can land on hard ground, stony ground, or even thorny ground and never come to fruition. It seems that Truth is a gift by its very nature. And that gift can be received, or it can be rejected, lost, or choked out of our life. There is nothing coercive about Truth. We cannot use it like a crowbar to force people to do what is right or even to think about what is right.
I think this explains for me why sometimes Evil looks like it is more powerful than Good. No matter how much Truth you offer, no matter how much Good accompanies it, Evil uses bats with spikes and brass knuckles to make its point heard. So people who align with Evil seem to win a lot.
But God seems to prefer non-coercive means to accomplish His will. He offers light for dark places, healing for open wounds, Truth that opens the doors that Lies have closed, and Love for those who have known nothing of it before. And when God’s Goodness is received, the enemy has no chance at all. Light has all the power, and darkness has nothing to keep it in place when the light is embraced. Good is far more powerful, because it can undo the damage done by Evil. But it requires our participation. We need to respond. To let it take root and grow in us. Then that which God has sent out will accomplish its purpose (Isa.55).