This morning Craig and I visited a new church.
The worship music was beautiful. The people were warm and welcoming from the moment we walked through the door. There was joy in the room, real joy, not forced or performative. You can feel that people truly want connection, hope, something deeper than the endless noise and division the world is feeding us all these days.
The sermon focuses on the parable of the seed. Not just one of them, but several seed parables Jesus taught throughout the scriptures. The pastor said something that has stayed with me all day: God has planted many seeds in our lives that are actually answers to the prayers we ask for. The problem is that we often overlook them because seeds rarely look like miracles at first.
That’s the deep dive.
A seed looks small.
negligible
general
And yet inside a seed a whole future awaits stewardship.
I think many of us spend years begging God for conversion, ignoring the seeds already sitting in our hands.
The seed of discipline.
The seed of honesty.
The seed of silence.
The seed of forgiveness.
seeds of courage
The seed of repentance.
Seeds of wisdom.
The seed of responsibility.
The seed of the border.
especially borders.
Honestly, the older I get, the more convinced I am that darkness absolutely hates healthy boundaries.
Seriously though, it’s true. Think about it in your own life.
psychologically. emotionally. Relatively. Spiritually. Boundaries prevent unhealthy systems. They reveal manipulation. They force accountability. They remove easy access to one’s energy, focus, resources, emotions or peace.
This is why people often become angry when we stop participating in unhealthy dynamics.
I’ve seen this in relationships, friendships, family systems, churches, coaching dynamics, and even business environments. The moment someone says, “This doesn’t feel healthy for me anymore,” the whole atmosphere can change. Suddenly the person setting the boundary becomes “selfish,” “crazy,” “cold,” “unloving” or “difficult.” Guilt flies. Complaints are being raised. Revisionist history is nowhere to be seen. Emotional manipulation is intensified because unhealthy systems panic when access is removed.
And honestly? The overlap between psychology and spirituality has fascinated me deeply lately.
The more I work on daily demons, the more I notice how often destructive spiritual patterns run deep through people’s psychological processes. fear shame pride Narcissism. addiction Anger. Victimhood. Mandatory distraction. mental disorder Self-delete. Manipulation in the guise of love. Impersonation control as protection. Spiritual excellence is disguised as knowledge.
Darkness rarely announces itself dramatically in our lives.
Most of the time it deals only with a whisper.
Agree with the annoyance and chaos.
Obsession and bitterness.
Agree with ego or delusion.
Agree with the lie that peace is weakness and emotional instability is emotion.
One small deal at a time.
This is why I no longer discount the importance of what we eat over and over again in our lives. The scriptures talk about this all the time. the seed fruit the soil Harvest Christ understood human nature far better than many moderns give him credit for. He knew environment was important. He knew repetition was important. He knew that what we constantly entertain eventually shapes us.
“Be not deceived: God is not mocked, for what a man soweth, that shall he reap.” — Galatians 6:7
This verse feels almost uncomfortable to modern culture because we seek relief from the consequences of eating unhealthy foods every day. We eat anxiety during hungry silences. When we are hungry for intimacy, we feed on lust. When humility is starved, we feed on the ego. We feed on anger when we starve for knowledge. Then we sit confused wondering why peace seems so far away.
The seed always grows eventually.
That truth applies as much spiritually as it does psychologically.
Carl Jung once wrote, “Until you become conscious of the unconscious, it will rule your life and you will call it fate.” I think about this line often now. Many people live with unconscious wounds, unresolved traumas, unexpected fears, emotional compulsions, and inherited dysfunctions while believing their suffering is entirely external. Meanwhile, their inner soil is filled with bitterness, fear, violence, chaos, resentment, self-sacrifice and emotional isolation.
The results ultimately tell the story.
Every single time.
One thing I’m becoming increasingly aware of is how modern culture rewards mental performance while starving the soul. We are encouraged to respond immediately, broadcast continuously, use relentlessly, and avoid silence at all costs. Stagnation has become terrifying to many people because stagnation finally reveals unresolved issues.
Silence reveals what noise hides.
Which is why Hippie Christianity has become so important to my writing. Somewhere along the way, many of us have lost presence itself. We become detached from creation, rhythm, embodiment, meditation, prayer, grounding, and deep listening. We begin to treat spirituality as a performance rather than a communication.
And communication requires honesty.
True honesty.
That kind of asks tough questions.
What am I eating every day?
What environment am I cultivating inside my home?
Which relationship leaves me chronically confused vs. grounded?
What thought patterns have become normal?
What emotional patterns keep repeating?
Quietly took away my peace of what entertainment?
These are not small questions.
These questions shape destiny.
One of the most dangerous things about mental and spiritual dysfunction is that people adapt to it remarkably quickly. We normalize chaos. We normalize confusion. We normalize mental fatigue. We normalize anxiety and overstimulation to such an extent that true peace can begin to feel unfamiliar. Some people live in mental turmoil for so long that they find sobriety doubtful.
Peace is not boring.
Peace is healthy.
Peace makes room for clarity.
Peace allows truth to breathe.
Peace reconnects us with God, ourselves and each other.
And no, that doesn’t mean life becomes easy or painless. Christ never promised the absence of suffering. What he demonstrated was alignment. Groundedness. honesty Compassion without self-effacement. Borders without hate. Love without active destruction.
That last part is deeply important.
Loving someone doesn’t require them to participate in chaos.
I think many of us need to hear this more clearly.
There is nothing unpleasant about rejecting water weeds that are choking the life out of your garden.
That is stewardship.
The pastor said something else this morning that I’ve been turning over in my mind all afternoon. He said that many people pray for miracles while ignoring the tiny seeds that God has already placed right in front of them. A healthy marriage starts with tiny seeds. Healing begins with tiny seeds. Peace begins with tiny seeds. Faithfulness begins with small seeds. Knowledge begins with tiny seeds. From what at first seemed insignificant grew a whole garden.
Christ constantly spoke in tongues for a reason.
Soil condition is important.
And perhaps this is the real question many of us need to be asking ourselves right now:
What is growing inside me?
That’s not what I’m posting.
That’s not what I’m doing.
What image am I projecting to the world?
What is actually growing inside me?
Fear or peace?
Bitterness or compassion?
Anarchy or baselessness?
Pride or humility?
Confusion or clarity?
Resentment or forgiveness?
Because eventually, every seed bears fruit.
And the results always tell the truth.
This question has been weighing heavily on my mind all day:
What is actually growing inside me?
Not an image.
Not performance.
Not the curated version that we hand out to the world online.
real fruit
real environment
Actual condition of the soil.
What we eat grows. Every single time.
So I’m curious… what part of this music hit you the hardest today? Which seeds do you realize you need to stop feeding — or finally start watering?
Drop a thought below. I read a lot more of these comments than people realize.
And if it stirs something in you, share it. Your loved one can water the weeds while praying for the garden.
Always loving and praying for you and our world,
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This post was Previously published at medium.com.
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Photo credit: Rene’ Schooler (Author)
