ALL of us have gone astray. Why?

The Prophet Isaiah summarized our problem this way: We have eyes, but don’t see; ears but don’t hear, and calloused hearts that don’t understand. (Isaiah 6:9-10)

In his parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23), Jesus (who embodies the Image of God and the Presence of God) warned us about a number of reasons why we go astray.

Sometimes we do not hear his words. They are carried away as if birds swooped down and ate them. (Matthew 13:4,19).

This is what happens when my wife asks me to take out the garbage. I do nothing (except maybe grunt in response). Her words “come in one ear and go right out the other”.

Other times, the words of Jesus are overcome by “troubles and persecutions” (Matthew 13:5,20-21). I hear my wife ask me to take out the garbage, but I’m exhausted and my back aches. So I avoid doing what she asks.

Other times, the words of Jesus are smothered by distractions such as the pleasures of this life, the worries of this life, and the deceitfulness of wealth. (Matthew 13:7,22). I hear my wife asking me to take out the garbage, but I’m busy reading a book, talking on the phone, or watching TV. Soon, I forget that she even wants me to take out the garbage.

Fortunately, there are other times that we hear and understand the words of Jesus, putting them into practice immediately and in many ways. We are “good soil”, producing a crop that yields a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

At such times, I hear my wife ask me to take out the garbage and do it immediately. I also remember many other things she has asked me to do such as doing the laundry. Then, she has time to relax, baking cookies and eating them with me while we sip coffee together.

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

In what ways do you have eyes but don’t see, ears but don’t hear, and a calloused heart that doesn’t understand. Why?

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For related ideas, please read my blogs “Listening to the Heart of God”; “Civilizations and Governments: Seeing, Hearing and Understanding Wisely”; “Hypocrisy: Calloused Hearts”; and “Handel’s Messiah: All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray”.

Please read my book Visions of America to understand the failures of Americans to see, hear and understand the evils of slavery and racism.

Please read my book Visions of the Church to understand the many ways we constantly go astray, as illustrated by the troubled—yet ultimately triumphant—flight of Apollo 13.