I suppose I’ll never forget the time when as a kid someone gave me a rock tumbler for Christmas. I was so jazzed! It had been near the top of my list. I couldn’t wait to start. I imagined transforming raw rock into works of art.
This reality hit hard: It takes several stages and nearly two months to tumble a stone to shiny loveliness! How’d I miss that fact? After one set of stones, the tumbler migrated to a shelf, never to tumble again.
I’m thinking about the Parable of the Sower these days, but with a bit of a love/hate thing going on. It moves me deeply that the very nature of the Kingdom is growth. Like weeds and yeast, almost unstoppable. But at the same time, the very nature of the Kingdom usually is slow as plants growing. It takes forever!
Transformation in my life is slower than I wish. In other people’s lives, it’s glacial! ? And sometimes it seems like the Kingdom expansion we hope for, live for, in the Muslim world simply will never come.
So we sow. . . and we wait. . . and we watch. We celebrate every indication of growth, both in our own hearts and beyond. We look for ways to speed the growth while leaning hard on the one who promises a harvest in due time.
If you’re praying or caring for Muslims, if you’re finding ways to reach out and connect, good for you. You could pick easier stuff to do. Don’t give up. God is pleased for you to be his ambassador and through you to extend his offer of life.
If I can pray for you in these things, please shoot me a quick email and tell me how.