pulling weeds and fallow ground

St Ambrose talks to us about plowing fields today in A Year with the Church Fathers. He says we should learn from Paul's example, since he sinned very seriously by persecuting Christians, but then turned from those sins to do great works for God.

The underlying logic of St Ambrose's advice is in agricultural parlance. He teaches us that if we want fruit to grow in our fields, we need to get rid of the weeds and get the soil ready.

But what does that actually mean in our lives, literally? Well, weeds are sins. If we ask Him to show us our sins, He will turn the spotlight of the Holy Spirit onto us, and show us where our sins are. Then we can repent of them and that helps our "soil" to get ready.

We can also turn over our soil, and make it "fallow" (which means plowed but not sown) so that it will grow in nutrients once more and be ready eventually to produce fruit. The way we do that is to allow Him to take away our apathy and to make our hearts soft again. And as the "fallow" concept teaches us, there will probably be a time after we're broken but before we start doing the works He's broken us for. That's the time when our souls are become "rich in nutrients" once more.

God, thanks for creating agriculture and using it to teach us about our spiritual lives.