Sow love

Sow love

In my younger, professional days, we dreaded the announcement that the company had brought in an “efficiency expert.”  This guy – somehow, it was always a guy – had a clipboard and a stopwatch and he was going to help us find ways to work better – fewer steps, less waste.  Maybe we didn't cooperate as well as we could have or should have, but few things changed

Later on, we got more sophisticated.  Instead of efficiency experts, we were introduced to process re-engineering.  We formed committees to figure out better “work flows” – fewer steps, less waste.  We filled shelves and shelves of blue binders – it was IBM, the binders were always blue – with diagrams and tables that showed what we did and how we could do it better.  I’m not sure we ferreted out much waste.  The binders were rarely opened again.

I suppose these efforts made some sense in a world with limited resources.  If there is only so much of something, one should try to maximize the efficiency of using up that something.  But Jesus tells us that in God’s kingdom, efficiency is not important since the key resource – God’s love – is infinite.  No matter how much we “use,” we will never use it up.  It keeps on coming.

In God’s kingdom, it doesn't matter if some of the seed falls on the road, or on rocky ground, or among the thorns, for the seed that falls on good soil yields thirty or sixty or one hundred fold.

In God’s kingdom, we are to “sow” God’s love – literally scatter God’s love, for that is the root meaning of sow – indiscriminately and extravagantly.  We are not to be concerned if, by loving others as God loves us, we don’t often see God’s love returned from others in any discernible way.  We feed the poor, yet tomorrow, there are more who are hungry.  We may shelter the homeless, yet tomorrow, the shelter’s beds will still be full.  We may love our enemies, yet they may, despite our love, still hate us and may even persecute.  It seems a waste of our love, a waste of God’s love.

When we fall into that trap, we are like those who considered Jesus’ death on the cross an ending, an end of hope, an end of a good man who only wished the best for everyone he met.  It wasn't the end, it was only the beginning.   Some of the love Jesus sowed in the hearts of those first few disciples yielded much more than a hundred-fold, for over a billion people today profess faith in Jesus.

Having the faith to share God’s unconditional and infinite love – with our families, with our friends, with our neighbors, with our enemies – may be the most inefficient thing we do, yet nothing can have greater effect.

Throw out the clipboards, the stopwatches and the binders.  Love as God loves his creation.  It is all we need do.  It is everything the world needs.

Dare to sow love extravagantly.  Dare to sow love indiscriminately.  Might I even say, dare to sow love inefficiently; and the kingdom of God will be yours.