Soul-Soil Preparation (Matthew 13:3-9; 18-23)

If you got hit by bus or truck today,
And angels helped your soul to limp away
To meet your Maker – with God looking back,
And heard God’s query (not so much attack
As summing up), what answer would you give?
“How did it go, my friend – how-ever did you live?”

Would you be happy with your answer given?
Or would you wish you had with effort striven
To have an answer you’d be pleased to share
About your life on earth, and how your care
Was manifest in ways which saw new life
Spring up amidst earth’s noise and endless strife?

I had that dream nigh forty years ago,
And did not like my answer then, and so
I changed my course, my quest embarked upon;
Then pushed on through until my Victor’s song
Became my answer – I fulfilled my quest –
The answer one I never would have guessed.

But what if I’d not won – by bus was hit?
How ’bout it then, no answer yet to fit
Into the chat – how would I feel at that?
Without the satisfaction bringing back
A life renewed by curiosity –
How would I feel half-way between for me?

God answered that – said, “Trust me, it will take
Some time to see, but first the soil we’ll make
In better shape, so seed-word has a chance
To grow, bear fruit, and kingdom thus advance
Out in the world of business-finance life,
Where folks have need of help within the strife.

That parable of sower and the seed
He opened up, inquired of my need –
“Is soul hard-packed from tramp of heavy boots?
Resources gone, assigned for other use?
Is field now sown with fruitless crops today
Which look so good as in the breeze they sway?

The third of these was first to challenge me –
A crop of cares and worries I could see
Obsessed my mind and heart – my courage sapped;
My trust in God was nil – resource I lacked;
So God said, “Now it is unanimous –
To fix the soul-soil first’s the task for us.

But then I saw the final line in text –
Good crops grow up one seed to thirty – next
One seed to sixty, one to hundred seeds –
But that was all – no seed meets all the needs;
We are one stem – within a larger crop;
If we get hit, there’s other seed He’s got.

’Twas then I saw, it matters not – success
Is nice, but issue now is to progress
In cleaning up the rock-strewn garden soil,
So later on a crop will yield to toil
We pour into our larger project’s space –
“I’m on my way, right road in any case.

As I stood back, I sensed a larger plan –
He’d get me there if I’d just take His hand;
No quick success, for long-term He would build –
First till the soil, then be with Spirit filled;
And then we’d do the work, foundation laid
For edifice – in storm it will have stayed.

Now, that’s my task – foundation building task –
Prepare each garden soil as He has asked;
Help folks relax, let God work carefully
To set things up, that crops mature might be;
Without that game – the rock of Sisyphus
Rolled up the hill – have it roll back on us.

So, friend of mine – your answer, ready yet?
How can I help you better answer get?
That is my task – help soil of garden fix,
That crop can grow – clear off the stones and sticks;
The crop’s still God’s, the soul-soil is your turf –
Let’s get to work – take time to prep the earth.

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