We reap what we sow. In other words, what we do is never free of an outcome that will be shaped by what we do. The ‘cause-and-effect’ of life is such that what we do will always cause an outcome that is fashioned directly by what we do. Despite the fact that we often think (or would prefer to think) that what we do is somehow isolated to the action or the choice itself, by doing something we have, in fact, set the stage for a future outcome that will reflect whatever the action or choice was that we made. We reap what we sow. And that is an immovable reality.
The Consequences of Our Sowing
And if we look around us, what we see today will tell us, quite clearly, the stuff that we sowed yesterday. The events of today grew out of the choices of yesterday. We can complain about the world today. We can bemoan our lot in life, or we can find ourselves becoming deeply hopeless and darkly dismayed about the state of our culture. We can grieve deeply over tragedies that seem to befall us at every turn and that leave us drowning in an agony so consuming that we don’t have time to heal before the next one befalls us. We can be utterly stunned at the nature of events and the course of the culture, having believed that such things were leagues beyond the scope of reality…but here they are. The headlines are strewn with news so dark that it sometimes seems nearly apocalyptic and we sit teetering on some abyss that our choices delivered us to. But does not our surprise reveal our ignorance, because the fact of the matter is, we reap what we sow.
The Price of Denial
Have we been so oblivious as to somehow think that this would not be the case? And are we so adamant about wanting to preserve our so-called ‘rights’ to engage in whatever destructive behavior that we choose to engage in that we altogether deny the cause-and-effect of those choices? Will we pretend that we are somehow above such an immovable reality. Will we delude ourselves with the belief that we have license do whatever we want, and that we somehow have obtained the power to grant ourselves a free pass from the consequences of doing what we want? Are we foolish enough to believe that we can indulge in the most rogue and base passions imaginable, and do so in some sort of perfect isolation?
The Games That We Play
Or do we actually accept the fact that we will reap what we sow, but that in time what we reap will somehow magically become better, despite the fact that it was, and will continue to be sown from the same exact stuff from which we’ve reaped the bad stuff? Or have we been sufficiently fooled by those who would declare that what we’ve reaped was actually that of others who have liberally sown our cherished and rather admirable efforts with toxic seeds designed to undermine our efforts, and it is their seeds which we have reaped? Let’s not be fooled, for we’ve been fooled for far too long already. We reap what we sow.
Changing the Seeds
And so maybe we should look at what we’re sowing. Honestly. Frankly. With great pause and even greater thought. And maybe we should think about what the things that we’re sowing are going to result in. And maybe we need to refuse to live in denial of that painful and frequently disappointing reality. Maybe we should understand that while we might like to believe that we will reap something good from compromised seeds, that that is not the case, nor will it ever be despite how much sowing we might do. And maybe, just maybe we should start sowing something different. Something very different. Something radically different. Maybe it’s time for a change of seeds, a real change, an honest change. Maybe it’s time to sow something better because we cannot afford to continue to reap things that are this bad.
“A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
- Galatians 6:7-9
Craig Lounsbrough
M. Div., LPC