The Annual Harvest

 You may have heard the phrase, “One and done.” Sometimes I wonder if we, as Christ followers, generally live a rather thin religious experience with this nice idea that faith is an exchange: we say a prayer, and God makes us clean. One and done! But discipleship is a process of growing in the knowledge of God, and our heart being transformed in living in accord with God. The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 1 wrote, “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. 16 But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.” Christ is patiently making us an example of mercy and grace with each “harvest of our heart,” casting out the bad and keeping the good God planted within. I learned that in the parable of the weeds and wheat, Jesus is teaching us that there is both wheat and weeds, good and evil, planted in our hearts, but with the harvest, which happens at least annually, we are to glean the good and get rid of the evil. So, patiently we work.