God's seeds: Growing and producing His fruit

		Living the Scriptures  with St. Paul University  Catholic Center  Amanda Enders

"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit."

God did not create seeds to be seeds. A seed's purpose is to fall to the ground and die. It then grows into a tree or a flower or a plant and produces fruit.

The seed was not meant to remain a seed but was meant to grow into a tree or a flower and to produce fruit.

Fifth Sunday of Lent (April 2, 2006) Ez 37:12-14 Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 Rom 8:8-11 Jn 11:1-45 or 11:3-7, 17, 20-27, 33b-45

In the same way, we are God's seeds. We are not intended for the life we are living but for a greater good that God has planned for us.

As Christians, our goals should be God's goals for us. We want to bear the fruit that God has intended for us. To do this, we must give our lives over to God. We must let the life we intended for ourselves die, so that we can bear the fruit of the life God intended for us.

Many conversion stories contain a past that is littered with bad choices and sin, my own story being an example.

But God has other plans for each and every one of us. The bad decisions I was making were not part of God's plan for me. When I decided to give my life to him, "everything old passed away and, behold, new things have come." My old life died and a life lived for God was able to grow up and bear fruit.

This is why the Gospel goes on to read, "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life."

In order to give our lives over to God we must hate the life we have in this world. No, God doesn't want us to hate the life he has given us, he wants us to see that what He has to offer us, the life that He has to give us, causes the life of this world to pale in comparison.

If we see that the life of this world is not the do all and end all, then we won't live to serve that life, but will live to serve God and the life he promises us.

	Reflection questions • Have you given your life to God today? • Have you died to this world? • Are you bearing the fruit that God has intended you to bear?

The life we are living may be a life completely devoted to serving God, but God always has a greater plan for us.

If we keep our hearts and minds focused on God and what he has created for us, then we may believe that we are really doing what God has called us to, and we can say, as Jesus said, "But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name."

Amanda Enders, a sophomore at the UW-Madison, is majoring in English. At St. Paul University Catholic Center she co-leads a women's group.

St. Paul's Web site is www.stpaulscc.org

Faith Alive!

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