Food for Thought: Sow Good Seeds

2025: The Year of Sowing Seeds and Reaping Harvest

After absorbing the mood of inauguration day yesterday, I was left with two distinct images of two distinct seasons: the season of sowing seeds and the season of reaping harvest. As we enter into a new era, it's hard to ignore the freshness of how today feels. A new season of life is right now preparing a path for more life to come. Similar to the seasons in our calendar year—fall, winter, spring, and summer—each season of life plays a distinct role in preparing our "spiritual soil" for what's to come.

What struck me about yesterday was the exuberance in the room when the incoming president, Donald Trump, spoke about "a Golden Era". Personally, as someone deeply involved in discussing the health narrative over the last two years, it was impossible not to feel the overwhelming sense of optimism coming from the MAHA movement, from people like Calley Means and Robert Kennedy Jr. Observing the feeling in the room and sharing conversations with people here in Austin, it feels like many are ready for a season of good harvest—this is exciting.

Putting excitement aside, I want to delve into some practical applications of how I am thinking about these next few years. After having spent the last three years planting many seeds—recording nearly 400 episodes of our podcast and launching two businesses—I am also struck with this sense of harvest. What might be exciting for you to learn is that despite what the world may tell us - the Golden Era is already here. The season of sowing and harvest are readily available to us, and go much deeper than simply making more money or pursuing new business opportunities. Allow me to dive in.

Good Soil: What Makes It Different?

Any good harvest starts with good soil. In The Parable of the Sower, Matthew recounts Jesus teaching about different types of soils. His teachings, brilliant for a mere carpenter, are incredibly relevant to the sense of prosperity and opportunity people feel today. Seated in a boat, Jesus preaches to a shoreline full of people, starting with, "a farmer went out to sow his seed," and continues to describe four different types of soil where these seeds land.

Some seeds land along the path, others on rocky places, some among thorns, and others on good soil, each producing different outcomes. The seeds on the path were eaten by birds. Those on the rocks sprang up quickly but withered away under the sun due to shallow roots. The seeds in the thorns grew well but were eventually choked by the weeds. At this point, as the farmer, you're probably unsatisfied and worried about the harvest. Thankfully, some seeds land on good soil, where Jesus says the soil produced a crop "sixty or thirty times what was sown."

In this teaching, Jesus is the farmer, his seeds are the Word of God, and the soil is the people hearing, receiving, and understanding the Word. Jesus makes it clear that the harvest depends on the conditions of the soil. I want to emphasize that this teaching applies to us today, whether you're a follower of Jesus or not, specifically addressing our spiritual life, which transcends every aspect of our existence. The modern, Western world tries with all its might to compartmentalize our lives into different categories—we have a business life, a home life, a personal life, and a spiritual life. This view of life is both dangerous and false; we live a spiritual life that fully integrates into everything we touch.

So, what constitutes good soil? Biologically, good soil is full of life not visible to the human eye and takes season after season to develop. Any farmer can tell you that good soil is often composed of organic matter, the remnants of prior life, capturing the circle of life. It's a mixture of sand, clay, rock, and other formations that allow for air, water, and roots. This good soil is teeming with small microorganisms that help break down decaying life, turning death into life. If our spiritual life is about "dying to ourselves" to make way for new life, the importance of these microorganisms becomes clear. In our lives, these organisms might represent people or experiences that have helped shape our spiritual foundation, breaking down the parts of us that need refining to spawn a bountiful harvest in the next season.

Final Thoughts & Practical Applications

I find the Parable of the Sower significant in light of today's energy. As you consider how to apply yourself over the next four years, take a moment to make some observations about your own life:

1. Are you in a season of sowing seeds or reaping harvest?

2. What type of soil are you? What makes it good or bad?

3. Is it time to harvest or to find more good soil?

4. Where are you planting seeds?

It's hard for me not to point this entire parable back to deconstructing my own understanding of time, how I am investing it, and what type of harvest I am preparing for in my life.

At the end of the day, many people reading this are simply planting seeds on the path—without roots, results, or spiritual bounty to reflect a life well-lived.

It would be easy to interpret this article as focusing solely on money as the harvest—it's not (though money can be a great blessing and a potential byproduct of a good harvest). When Jesus teaches about the harvest, he's speaking to our relationships, first with God and then with those closest to us. We've been given the liberty to choose who and how we spend our time, and it's more relevant now than ever to understand that our relationships are our harvest. They are the fields in which all of life's other blessings grow or die, and the key differentiator between good soil and soil with thorns. Take inventory of how your relationships—your marriage, your business relationships, your personal relationships—strengthen or weaken your relationship with God. If your goal is to produce eternal good, ask yourself what needs to die to produce a good harvest from good soil.

For me personally, I feel as though I am entering 2025 with mixed feelings as it relates to the Parable of the Sower, mostly because I've seen distinct areas where my soil has been the path and distinct areas where my soil has been good. I am challenged by this teaching in many ways, but the part that has been made clear to me in writing this is that I have sown many, many seeds over the last few years. Some have been eaten by birds, some grew quickly and died, some have grown in the wrong areas, and some are ready for harvest. I get peace in knowing that it's outside of my power to force the growth of any one seed. All I can do is submit myself to God, and allow him to work through me as I deepen my relationships and continue to work on the things He has called me to do.