"Plowing vices under and planting virtues in their place - that's hard work!" These words written over 700 years ago by a man named Thomas still ring true today. It's just not easy following Jesus. And I don't think it was ever meant to be. Jesus promises that we will struggle in this world. We will experience pain and suffering. He tells us that following Him requires us to pick up a cross. To deny ourselves. To take on an entirely new way of life. For that new life to flourish, the old life has to die. And death is never easy.
Jesus uses all sorts of images to describe this new way of life but perhaps His favorites are drawn from agriculture. Sowers and seeds. Trees and fruit. Soil and wheat and weeds. And I resonate with His choice of metaphors. I was lucky enough to grow up going back home to the family farm to help with planting and harvesting. My earliest memories are of grandpa taking me out in his combine to harvest wheat or in his tractor as he filled up at the grain elevator before feeding the cattle on our feedlot. Lots of early mornings and late nights. Lots of hard physical work. It wasn't an easy life but it was a good one. Filled with the joy that comes from working hard and seeing the fruit of your labor. And while I didn't live on the family farm, my parents made sure it was part of our life growing up.
I think following Jesus - or as Thomas puts it, "Imitating Jesus" - is a lot like farming. It requires hard work. An attention to detail. Early mornings. Late nights. After all, old habits die hard. We have to plow under the soil of our hearts. Remove the rocks and stones and stumps and roots that can wreak havoc come harvest time. We have to stay alert as weeds spring up threatening to choke off the new life that's emerging in us through Christ. And it's not enough just to clear the ground of our old vices, we have to plant new virtues as well. We have to be intentional about sowing seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That way, we will reap a harvest of godliness over the course of a lifetime.
So how does one do this? Well, start with this week. It's Holy Week. Truly the greatest week in human history. This is THE week that changed the world forever! And of all the traditions we celebrate as Christians, it is the one week out of every year where we literally get to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. We join the crowd praising God on Palm Sunday. We sit at the Table with the disciples on Maundy Thursday. We gather at the Cross on Good Friday. We sit in reflection and silence on Holy Saturday. And we rejoice in the victory of God on Easter Sunday. So...what seeds are you planting this week? And what will you reap from what you've sown? Will you do the hard work of cutting through all the "stuff" of life - what Thomas might call "vices" and Jesus might call "weeds" - to get at what's real? What's eternal? What's most true? You won't be disappointed, I promise.