By Todd Janssen

Have you ever had a sudden realization about how God has been transforming your life while you were completely unaware of the work He was doing? 

I recently had this realization hit me out of the blue while walking and listening to Brandon Lake’s song “Graves into Gardens”.

For about a week before I took my walk, I had been contemplating how much God has done for me. I often contemplate this, mostly in the times when I am feeling restless, irritable, and discontent leading to feelings of hopelessness, self pity, and despair. These times come in different forms, but they always lead to the same thing, falling into the habit of relying on myself to make me ok rather than God. But God through a long series of loving actions in my life built a system that brings me peace that surpases all understanding, contentment, and joy for the morning.

In this contemplation, I have come back to a distinctly personal view of the parable of the sower and how God changed the barren wasteland of my life into an abundant garden.  

“What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”
Matthew 13:3-8 MSG

I have realized that God built a garden in my life by having different people sow His word into my heart at different times as the soil in my life was transformed by his grace. Initially, I received his word as a young man, still stuck in the home of an alcoholic drug addict and co-addict. The word I received then fell onto the path and rocky ground, it was stolen off of the hard packed ground and a tiny bit of hardened shrubs hung on in the gravel.

In my early adult life, I tried to turn my back completely on God. I was angry and blamed the entirety of my human condition on Him. Sower would occasionally come by but now the weeds of my addictive behaviors choked out God’s seeds from taking root.

Then God lovingly gave me the gift of desperation, at my lowest point he granted me the willingness to do anything, including submitting to Him to escape the misery of my life. That started the slow process of God transforming the ground of my life into good and fertile ground.

God led me through the process of removing the weeds that were choking out his word through a spiritual inventory and sharing my faults with others. He transformed my well worn path of self reliance by pointing out that only He could fill the God sized hole in my heart. He transformed the rocky ground into fertile ground through caring for others rather than myself.

Now I walk into what was a barren wasted land and can drink from the spiritual wells God has given me. I get to experience God’s wells of thankfulness, forgiveness, and faith. After a week of prayer and seeking after God as I walked and listened to Brandon Lakes’ song God gave me a vision of  my barren life transformed into a garden full of life that produced a harvest beyond my wildest dreams. 

Today I am reminded of how important music and worship is in my life.

It is yet another pathway God uses to transform my way of thinking into His way of thinking. Music cuts through my thought spirals and wondering in a clear way that almost nothing else does.