Good Soil and Good Timing

"Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13:8-9

We could hardly wait to get the seedlings in the ground. We have a large yard but only a very small part of it is sunny, so we bought raised bed kits and set them up. The weather had been warm all week and we expected to get everything planted this weekend. And then the weather changed. What had been a typical, mild May has become frigid and wildly windy. The soil would have blown everywhere if we had planted everything and the cold would have frozen the tender little wisps of plants. Our excitement has to be tempered by the weather and the seasons. God's timing is not always our timing. Our enthusiasm can break the more fragile if we are not paying attention to God's timing. And our reticence can inhibit God's urgency when we fear ridicule for our planting.

Today I am on my way to DC for the Standing Commission meeting for International Peace with Justice Concerns. It is the first time I will meet with my colleagues in person this trienium. I was not able to be at our November meeting since this was when I was being installed. I felt bad for not being there, but I do have to trust God's timing in all of this. And so I ask your prayers for safe travel and good work - that our work will increase peace and justice around our church and the world. And that in God's timing these increases may come very soon.

So this week, I will try to be especially attuned to God's timing. Both for pateince and for the courage to step forward when it is right. May we all be good soil and faithful followers , so that God's peace may reign in our time.