After a Bengals game,  my son Jacob and I encountered a man passing out Super Bowl Trivia cards. I suspected he was doing something more.  He was.

The man stood quietly outside the stadium offering his cards to people as the left the game.  Some people reached for the cards. Others walked by quickly.  Some took a card and then dropped them onto the street because they didn’t value the message of Christ printed on the reverse of the trivia cards.

It reminded me of the parable of the sower.

Matthew 13: 3-9

3…”A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

If you’re reading this, you can relate to the man outside the stadium in two ways or maybe more. First, as people who have received the word, we have a responsibility to spread the seed to others.  Secondly, if you can see a stadium full of people and not see the need for the Savior, then maybe there is a need to take a second look at the soil.

A friend of mine from long ago, reminded me to of Jesus’ warning in verse 22: “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”

It is so easy to be caught up in the cares of this world.  Is there any area where you are preoccupied making you unfruitful? If so, what will you do to weed your garden and remove the thorns that choke the message of Christ?