Why is Their Grass Green?

Why is their grass green?  Our rainfall is the same.  We are suffering through the same drought and water restrictions, but that grass over there looks lush and green.  Mine is brown, dry and crunchy underfoot.  Of course, I cannot remember the last time I watered my grass and I certainly have not added fertilizer in years.  Still, I expect my grass to approximate the color of the grass next door.  In fact I demand the same look but not the same investment.  The grass is greener next door for a reason.

Mark 9: 3-8

³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air^[a]came and devoured it. ⁵ Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. ⁶ But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. ⁷ And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. ⁸ But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty and some a hundred.”

Our focus should not be the grass.  It is all about the soil.  Depending on where the soil is located, what nutrients are available, what surrounds it and how receptive the soil is to the seed determine the greenness of the grass. 

We sometimes find ourselves envious of another saint’s luscious appearing life.  We received the same word yet our lives do not look as becoming.  There are reasons for the difference. Consider where you are when the word goes out.  Are you outside the church, not in God’s will or doing your own thing?  Being in the wrong place physically or mentally allows Satan to stunt your growth. A hardened and unrepentant heart that does not seek after God leads to superficial religiosity that easily dissipates at the first sign of struggle.  Worldly distractions overwhelm us to the point of sapping the time or energy it takes to process the word.  We are stifled and unfruitful.  But to those whose soil or heart is receptive, unencumbered and in the right place over abundant goodness is produced.  As grass requires good soil, productive lives do as well.