Guard The Good
17. Aug, 2010 
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I’ve been writing material for the next sanctuary first. We’re exploring the sense of loss when the gospel is stolen from a person’s life. Often people don’t know what s happening to them. they have been touched by the eternal engaged with spiritual things, then something happens. A new job, a new house, a new set of friends and it all disappears. I mean the godly stuff the good seed is stolen
Its a lost and there is always a sense of bereavement when a godly person turns to go another way rejecting the word of God. The Bible tells us that evil is crouching at our door ready to pounce to steal from us to rob us on the peace. In this reflection, I suggest that we should begin to set up scarecrows in our lives, holy bogles, tattie bogles, who will chase away the evil from our hearts. Think for a moment how you can deter yourself from falling for temptation. Ask God to set up a door keeper in your life, a scarecrow in your fields. We all need a harvest. Don’t let the crows steal the seed. Stone the crows and feed the seed.
The following reflection is based on two painters from the last century. Van Gogh and Munch. Van Gogh painted a famntastic picture of the sower. In it he captures the persistence of the one who keeps on sowing and will not give up even when the seed falls on stony ground. The second picture The Scream reminds me of the great loss we all encounter when the good seed has been stolen from us. Its like a silent scream that says it all. Something has been rwrenched from your heart. get it back.
Guard the Good Seed
The seed had fallen into my heart
My soul was being touched
I could feel a stirring
Something was smothering the seed shoots
Strangling them
The sower was still sowing
The Sun was setting
I moved down the track
a breath of melancholy touched the soul
A deep sadness was awakened
Something was dying within
In the face of such beauty
Such a contradiction
A slight breeze was blowing
Across the water
Suddenly the sky turned blood red
I stopped
Leaned against the railing
Deathly tired
Looking out across the flaming clouds
Hanging like blood over the town
I stood trembling with fear
Gasping for breath
I had tuned into something
Was this earth pain
I sensed a great infinite scream
Pass through nature
I could see the brokenness
All around
Everything being subverted
I heard a voice cry
Guard the good
Guard the good seed
Confront the fear
Comfort the earth
Raise a scarecrow
This message is amazingly timely. I just picked up (again) C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters.” In the very first letter Screwtape identifies to his nephew, Wormwood, how easy it is to distract us from seeking Him. And how the imps and demons do not need to even reason or argue with us because “All the habits of the patient (us), both mental and bodily, are still in our (the demon’s) favor.” (Lewis, 1942)
Yes, we need to set up the scarecrows. Scare away the common, the everyday. Keep an eye on the things that are worthwhile; the good things that are sewn and grow strong when we nurture them.