{"id":423,"date":"2010-07-19T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/69.195.124.95\/~redletu4\/fertile-soil-the-secret-ingredient\/"},"modified":"2010-07-19T08:04:00","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T14:04:00","slug":"fertile-soil-the-secret-ingredient","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davidrupert\/fertile-soil-the-secret-ingredient\/","title":{"rendered":"Fertile soil: The secret ingredient"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
<\/a><\/div>\n

In this life, we are all really\u00a0fellow farmers, working toward producing good crops. We might not be in the fields, but we are in the factories and office buildings, retail stores and homes, putting out a product.\u00a0Metaphorically, none of us wants bad fruit. Nobody wants the bad produce of a harvest gone wrong.<\/p>\n

I have spent a lifetime building my character, disciplining my thoughts and trying to make the right choices, but still, I don\u2019t always turn out the best harvest. In fact, many of my best efforts are just rotten.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s something else I\u2019ve never really considered, and leave it to my friend Tim<\/a> to point it out. Although he isn\u2019t a farmer, he\u2019s had his share of both good and bad harvests in his life. He\u2019s honest about his failures, and humble about his victories.<\/p>\n

\u2018I have found the only way to produce a good crop is to have fertile soil,\u201d<\/em> he said, \u201cand the only way to get that is to constantly turn over the soil and add lots of crap.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

You might cringe at the word choice or turn away from the thought, but you cannot dispute the truth.<\/p>\n

So, maybe next time, when my life gets turned over, I\u2019ll remember the coming fruit. Maybe next time when someone shovels a smelly load into my life, I\u2019ll thank them for helping me out with the final product. <\/p>\n

Fertile soil. It\u2019s not as easy as I thought.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Please, share with a friend if you feel moved.
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In this life, we are all really\u00a0fellow farmers, working toward producing good crops. We might not be in the fields, but we are in the factories and office buildings, retail stores and homes, putting out a product.\u00a0Metaphorically, none of us wants bad fruit. Nobody wants the bad produce of a harvest gone wrong. I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[281,282],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fertile-soil","category-fertilizer"],"yoast_head":"\nFertile soil: The secret ingredient<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this life, we are all really\u00a0fellow farmers, working toward producing good crops. 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