Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name. Psalm 86:11

Rock Picking

            As pre-schoolers, one of the first warm weather jobs my kids were assigned was picking rocks out of the garden.  It kept the children within eyesight and kept them busy away from tender plants, but it wasn't just a busy work job.  It was a job that was crucial to the garden's success as it prepared the soil to receive seed. 

            Just as rocks are a real problem in the garden, they're a real problem in our spiritual lives as well.  Jesus explained the rocky ground in the parable of the seeds in this way:

But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.  Luke 8:13

            We all know people like this. People who receive the truth with joy, are excited for a time about their new-found faith, but then grow no deeper and fall away.  We've seen it time and again.  Perhaps it's even happened to us.  If so, we aren't alone.  Even a renowned disciple has been there.

            What did Jesus say to Simon in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Simon, are you sleeping?  Could you not watch one hour?  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.  Mark 14: 37-38

            Remember the surname Jesus gave Simon?  Yes, Peter, petros in Greek, meaning "stone".  Many have suggested that this naming had to do with Peter being one of the founders of the Church, and I'm sure that's true, but I suggest that perhaps this naming had a dual purpose.  After all, our strengths all have their equal and opposite faults. Perhaps "stone" was also a reference to the way Peter would, like those seeds that fall on rock, "receive the word with joy", but then "in time of temptation fall away" because he failed to "watch and pray."  That is most certainly what Peter did immediately following Jesus' arrest and crucifixion.  Why would one so outspokenly devoted to the Lord and the Way do this?  One reason could have been that Peter, instead of watching and praying, which may have seemed too passive to him, was trying to do everything in his own strength, trying to force everything to turn out the way he had envisioned it, and when that failed, Peter lost heart and fell away.

            After all, who was the disciple who suggested building three tabernacles on the Mount of Transfiguration?  Peter.  Which disciple picked up a sword and cut off the ear of one of the men who came to arrest Jesus ?  Peter.  Who decided that he was going fishing again for fish instead of men after Jesus' crucifixion?  Yes, Peter.  Simon Peter was a man of action, a man used to making things happen, a man used to doing things in his own strength.

            Jesus knew this about Peter.  He knew that the biggest obstacle in Peter's way was Peter.  Until that stone of self was moved out of the way, the seed of Truth could never root and grow deep.  Is there a stone preventing you from developing a deeper relationship with the Lord?  Like Peter it could be self-sufficiency, or unlike Peter it could be fear, or worry, or discontentment, or any number of other rocky things.  If so, it's time to go back to the fundamentals.  It's time to prepare the soil.  It's time to do some rock picking!

Daye Phillippo

June, 2012