So here I am, my rope slung across my chest, holding my flashlight in my mouth, I begin my descent into the dark, damp, chasm of....ME.
What am I looking for? Well...I'm looking for seeds, or lack of seeds. What I want to see are mighty oaks; but I can see from my perch on the rock face that I will have no such luck today. So I settle for the hope of finding at least a sapling or two down there. I open my Parable-of-the-Sower Soul Searching Manual, and flip it open to page one.
". . . THE WAY SIDE . . ."
The bold, scary letters stare back at me. A chill runs down my spine, and I flip the page.
"Behold...."
The word yells at me thunderously and echoes off the cave walls.
"...a sower went forth to sow;" It continues softer.
"And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:" - Matt. 13:3b-4
Hmmm...what does that mean? I look up at the opening above me, nope. No birds here. So what am I looking for? I flip a little farther in my manual. Ah...there it is, an arrow pointing to an explanation.
"Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." -Luke 8:12
"When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart..." -Matt 13:19
Whoa! This is some pretty serious stuff, I say closing the manual and placing it back in my pack. So the seed by the way side...it's the seed that never makes it. It gets taken away before it even has a chance to sprout.
I reach up to reposition my hold for the decent, and stick my hand is a slimy, wet substance. I pull my hand away and hold it under my flashlight. Yep...just like I thought; bird poo.
Ahhh...now I think I am beginning to understand. I've had experience with the way side and it's falcon. I see this when I don't understand a passage I am reading, or a message I am hearing, or even advice someone is giving me. I don't seem to grasp it's meaning, and then it proceeds to go absolutely. . . nowhere. In a matter of seconds, it's gone. Vanished. Poof.
Message over, passage read, advice giver gone...and my mind is still completely blank. The seed has officially been eaten. Yes the evil falcon has found it's way into the mouth of my cave...snatching my precious seeds before they can even fall to the ground.
But this nemesis isn't only after me. A memory flashes through my mind as I clean the nasty liquid from my hand.
I remembered a friend I seen standing in the Way Side. I met him at school, he was an agnostic who loved to talk... And I am a Christian who loves to talk about it...
Needless to say we got into our share of debates. We would talk about the meaning of life, what faith is, and where people came from. He would outright ask me why I believe the way I do. So I would tell him. For hours I would talk about how simple and irresistible salvation was. I would talk endlessly about the human condition of being born in SIN and our desperate need for a Savior...
We would discuss deep example, such as marriage as a picture of Christ and the Church, God as Father, and of course hours and hours were spent on Creation versus evolution.
He would ask me question after question and I would give him every answer I could think of. But I watched it all never dawn upon his face. He either didn't understand what I was saying or simply didn't believe it. Either way... it was stolen before it even made it inside him.
I begin to slip, losing my footing on the rocks; jolting me from my flashback. I shoot one last glance at the opening in the cave before I begin my descent.
"Darn birds!" I mutter.....
