I was really inspired by a sports article I read in my newspaper today—all about how our quarterback, Kirk Cousins plans on using his comeback victory to share his Christian faith. Ya, in case you weren’t aware, our Minnesota Vikings got the all-time NFL record for a comeback victory. They were down 33 to 0 against the Colts at the half, but in the second half they somewhat miraculously got 39 points and held the Colts to just three points. The final score was Viking 39, Colts 36.
It turns out that the last comeback victory was led by Buffalo’s quarterback Frank Reich, against the Houston Oilers in 1993, and he is a Christian just as Kirk Cousins is! Well, the article tells how he has encouraged Cousins to use his comeback victory to share his faith just as he has been doing in the last thirty years.
I pray that Kirk will really take the opportunity to do it. God has given him a tremendous platform in the sports world. It is up to him to use it to glorify God—no pressure, ha ha.
God has given me a platform too—my painting business. Through my business I have found many opportunities to give a witness.
In my reading today I was struck by the passage in Mark 4:26-28.
And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows — how, he himself does not know. 28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.
My observation here is that God calls us to plant the seeds of the gospel. I think for a Christian that is his primary task. And that task is very simple; just plant the seed and leave it alone. God will do the rest. He will cause it to grow. Too often I think we are too concerned that we will do something wrong or not enough. So, we do nothing out of fear.
The passage says that the farmer planted the seeds in a field and then he left the field and goes about doing whatever he does: he goes to bed and gets up. I grew up on a farm and that is basically what you do. You put the seeds in a planter, then you drive the tractor back and forth over the field planting the seed, until the whole field is planted. Then you go home, put your tractor and planter away, go have supper, and eventually go to bed. There is no more that the farmer needs to do with that field. There is no more that he can do. He trusts that rain will come and water the seeds and that the seeds will grow. And that is exactly what happens—every time!
Now in the meantime, as he waits for the seeds to grow, he continues to work. Perhaps he will plant seeds in another field, or he will cultivate a field that he had previously planted, where the corn seeds had grown. The point is that he will not worry about the seeds growing; he will keep working doing whatever God calls him to do—trusting that the seed will grow as it always does without the farmers help.
I will say again that I think many of us, including myself, are not always doing what we are called to do: we are not planting seeds of the gospel. We do all kinds of Christian things, but we are not planting seeds. We are not sharing our faith: in a conversation, in a blog or tweet or text. It doesn’t take much: a bible verse, a thought from the word, a lesson learned. Any small truth as small as a mustard seed can grow into a very large plant—which represents something very substantial that we may contribute to the kingdom of God.
Stephen Nielsen 