Today’s Reading: Matthew 13:1-23

On the same day that Jesus taught that good trees produce good fruit and bad trees produce bad fruit, he went out by the lake and sat down. Large crowds gathered around him, so Jesus stepped into a boat. The people gathered on the shore as Jesus began teaching them in parables — a simple story with a deeper meaning.

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” – Matthew 13:3b-9

My life has been greatly impacted by the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling. The book talks about using lead measures and lag measures when trying to obtain your wildly important goals. These concepts are making a huge difference on how much we get done each year at work and on where we place our focus.

Lag measures are the measure of the result you are trying to reach while lead measures are the measure of what will predictably influence the lag measures. Here is a simple example that helps these concepts make sense. I am trying to lose weight. How many pounds I lose will be my lag measure, but I am probably not going to lose weight if my focus is on how much I weigh each morning. Stepping on the scales each day is simply not going to take the pounds and inches away. I need to instead focus on the lead measures – how many calories I am burning and how many calories I am consuming. It is reasonable to predict that if I burn more calories than I consume, I will lose weight.

Now let us consider Covey’s concepts while reading the parable of the farmer scattering seed. If the farmer’s goal is to grow more plants, and he knows that the more seed he sows the more plants he grows, it makes sense for him to plant more seeds in order to grow more plants. It is predictable. If he wants his harvest to be a certain size, his focus must be on how many seeds he plants and how many fields he works in.

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” – Matthew 13:18-23

Not everyone who hears the message of salvation is going to accept it. Not everyone who hears how they can receive forgiveness and freedom from sin will choose to believe. Some of the seed we plant will fall on the footpath, some on rocky soil, some among thorns and some on good soil. If our lag measure is how many people pray to accept Jesus as their Savior, the lead measure is what? If we want to lead someone to Christ, not for our own gain but so that they can experience the joyful life we are blessed with each day, what do we need to do?

At the Pregnancy Resource Center, our desire is to equip women to make their pregnancy decision from a place of hope, faith, knowledge and support. So our lag measure is the difference we make in someone’s life but our focus needs to be on our lead measures. How many opportunities do we have each day to present a woman with her options, provide material assistance to help her prepare for the birth of her baby, talk about Jesus, and comfort a woman grieving from her abortion experience? If we want to make a bigger difference in our community, we have to have a strategy for getting the message out there of who we are and what we do. So client marketing is the lead measure we are looking at. After all, how can we help her if she does not know we exist?

If our mission as believers is to introduce others to Jesus or to see those around us accepting Jesus as their personal Savior, we could ask ourselves what we are doing to encourage those opportunities. In light of Jesus’ parable, we could ask how many seeds we are planting each day. If we don’t plant seeds, there will be no harvest.

I sat in a youth leaders meeting and someone voiced the burden they were carrying for some of our struggling teens. While encouraged by the spiritual growth taking place in the lives of some of our teens, we are also saddened by some of the choices being made by others. By the end of our discussion, we were reminded that we need to just keep “planting seeds” by creating opportunities for the teens to grow in their understanding of God as well as opportunities to live out their growing faith. We need to keep investing in their lives, trusting God with the results.

Where will my focus be today? Is it just another day about me or will I see myself as the farmer whose goal is to have a large harvest this year? If I do not set out with my eyes open for opportunities to plant seeds, I will most likely miss every chance that comes my way. But if I see myself as a planter of seeds today, I will look for opportunities to reach out to those around me, because it may just be the seed needed to grow a plant.