Treading New Ground

The following was an answer given to a completely unrelated question on a facebook forum but I was really struck by it..

As we walk along the path of our journey with Jesus, if we are walking with Him and doing what He is already doing, we are moving forward. This has an interesting effect on our perception of our effect on the landscape around us. As we walk forward with Jesus, we are treading on new ground, new growth, new relationships. Some of the time we get to walk with people along a similar stretch. However, most of the time, if we are walking along a path and “spreading seed” we have already gone ahead of the seed we have planted and we don’t get to see what happens to it.

Sometimes Jesus, in His kindness, will circle us back around to a spot on the path where we once spread that seed and can see that there is thriving growth and fruit.

Sometimes, our effects on others’ spiritual lives are never seen or heard, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen.

We can be quick to make leaps and judgement calls based on the current landscape along our path with Jesus. We have a hard time remembering and we more rarely get the joy and privilege of Jesus looping us back around to see the lush growth and fruit that our seed has borne.

All that said, we are all in different places along our path with Jesus. All in different seasons, with different peoples, in different times. The beauty of “The Church” is we all get to participate with Jesus in these different spaces and times differently.

Shared with permission.