#i struggle to be succinct so this was a fun and nourishing challenge! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blessedarethebinarybreakers · 3 months

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Releasing shame, relearning softness

“Listen to this! A farmer went out to scatter seed. As he was scattering seed, some fell on the path; and the birds came and ate it. …The farmer scatters the Word. This is the meaning of the seed that fell on the path: When the Word is scattered and people hear it, right away Satan comes and steals the Word that was planted in them.” - Mark 4:3-4, 14-15

As we explored yesterday, the farmer in the “parable of the sower" sows extravagantly, optimistically, letting seeds fall on all sorts of ground.

I only have time to explore the first kind of ground today; you’ll have to read the whole text with friends to puzzle out the rest (just as parables intend for us to do!).

The seed that falls on the path gets eaten by birds; “Satan” swoops in to steal the Word away.

Is it our fault when this happens? I say no. We are not to blame when others trample our spirits flat, pack our hearts into hard, desolate spaces, exposed and vulnerable to attack.

Maybe someone we trusted, or whole unjust systems, convinced us we are unlovable. Maybe some human iteration of Church wounded us so deeply that God’s Word no longer sounds like liberation to us, but prison, poison, hate.

Beloved, it is not your fault. And this is not the end of your story. God will keep lavishing love upon you, until you feel safe enough to soften. And then, what beautiful fruit!

What pains have left you feeling desolate, distrustful, afraid to soften enough to receive goodness? Where can you seek safety and healing? How can you hold others in their pain?

- Posted on Daily Ripple, 16 Feb 2024

#devotional #bible study #parable of the sower #this is the last of these i did for this week!#i struggle to be succinct so this was a fun and nourishing challenge!#like. i wanted to go on a tangent about not having to see 'satan' as either 1. a literal entity or 2. Totally Evil #but the word length constrained me and compelled me just to get straight to the heart of the matter #essays #also it's like. birds need seeds too! it's okay they took some!

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