I grew up in western Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plain and blows the red dirt so hard that it stings your face and gets caught in your teeth. My grandparents lived in southern Kansas, just across the Oklahoma panhandle, and we spent many hours in the car, making the journey to and from their home. We drove through small towns and past large country farms. We saw cattle and windmills and, above all, dirt.
Lots and lots of dirt, stretched out flat, as far as the eye could see.
Occasionally, we watched dust devils blow across the fields on either side of us. Once, we were stuck for miles behind a caravan of combines on a two-lane highway. We had to drive so slowly then, we thought we’d never get home. We tried to play the alphabet game with road signs, but mostly, we just looked at dirt.
How did the farmers grow anything in a place where tumbleweeds caught on our car antenna and waved like flags in the wind? How did those big green combines possibly have any crops to harvest there?
Because first, the dirt was plowed.
Every year, at just the right time, the farmers broke up that red dirt. They planted seed, fertilized it, and watered. Thanks to their labor, acres and acres of dirt brought forth acres and acres of wheat.
When the prophet Hosea urged Israel to return to the Lord, he told them to break up the dirt. “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.” (Hosea 10:12)
Crops grow best in tilled soil. Soil that’s been turned over, and had all the rocks removed. Soil that doesn’t let weeds choke out the good plants. Hosea said, “It’s time to seek the Lord…it’s time to plant righteousness and reap mercy…and it starts with breaking up dirt.”
Lately when I pray, I’ve been starting with confession first, instead of with my usual litany of requests and complaints. I ask God to show me areas of my heart that aren’t completely under His lordship: attitudes, motives, or thoughts that don’t honor Him. Asking God to point out my sin and then confessing it to Him has been a painful, eye-opening practice, but Hosea was right…I must break up my unplowed ground.
God, thank You for Your unfailing love that is mine in Christ. Let me sow righteousness for Your name’s sake. Would You make me hate my sin? Make me just sick over it. Break my heart over my sin, Lord, and break up my unplowed ground. It is time to seek You. Amen.
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