ICYMI: Luke 8 // Garden Tools
If you missed Sunday's service or could use a refresher, here's a quick recap featuring sharables and takeaways from our gathering. Scroll to the bottom for the full sermon recording.
📖 Focal Scripture
🎯 Reflection
When Jesus explains the Parable of the Sower, he’s not trying to pile on guilt or shame. Instead, he’s naming the realities of being human. He’s acknowledging that following his way is challenging. Throughout history, followers of Jesus have used spiritual disciplines and Rules of Life as “garden tools” to help cultivate “hospitable soil” and sustain a life of faith.
🗣️ Key Quotation
“Spiritual disciplines are like garden tools. The best spade and hoe in the world cannot guarantee a good crop; their use only makes it more likely that growth will be unobstructed. The mystery of maturation lies in the heart of the seed, and the outcome of planting depends largely on the vagaries of weather. Still, tools are important in helping to ensure that planted seeds will bear fruit. Tools can remove stones and roots, aerate the soil, weed and water the garden.” — Marjorie Thompson, Soul Feast
🙏 Prayer
Loving God, quiet the voices of guilt and shame with your loving assurance that I am enough. As I seek to follow your way of love and justice, especially when I am weary and worn, renew my spirit through rhythms and practices that sustain me. Help me hold fast to your word that your dream might become a reality in me and in the world. Amen.
➡️ Next Step
This week, begin developing your own Rule of Life. Like a trellis for ivy, a Rule of Life is a set of spiritual disciplines or practices that support spiritual growth. A Rule of Life can include a regular rhythm of prayer, scripture reading, silence, fasting, Sabbath, worship, and other activities that help to keep the heart open to the divine. Find more info here on how to develop your Rule of Life.
