Last weekend, I went hiking in a somewhat local park.  As I was hiking down a hill, my foot knocked loose a baseball-sized rock and kicked it behind me, up the hill.  I didn’t think too much about it until I heard the sound of something following me down the hill.  I glanced back, and there was that baseball-sized rock rolling down the hill after me.  I pulled over to let it pass me (I didn’t want it to hit my heels!) but it was caught on a bump in the trail and stopped rolling before it could catch up with me.

It got me thinking about sowing and reaping in our lives.  Whether we’re just waltzing through life or if we’re intentionally doing things, we’re leaving stuff behind.  This stuff will (figuratively) eventually roll down the hill after us.

Paul told the Galatians, “Whatever one sows, that will he also reap… So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (6:7, 10).  The law of sowing and reaping is a strong one.  And even if we don’t see the fruits of what we’ve done immediately, chances are they’ll catch up with us sooner or later.  And while I’ve seen times when the negative things that we’ve done stopped by God in His mercy and grace, like my baseball-size rock that was caught on a little bump in the trail, this isn’t always the case.

Having the rocks we’ve kicked up follow us down the hill (figuratively speaking) isn’t necessarily bad.  We tend to think of sowing and reaping in the realm of the negative – we sowed bad seed, and now we’ve got weeds.  Or we kicked up rocks like bad attitudes or anger or fear and now they’re all rolling down the hill after us about to crush us under their weight.

But those rolling rocks can be positives.  James said, “Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.”  That’s a good thing.  When we sow blessing, peace, joy, hope, love, humility, and other attributes of God, the rocks rolling down behind us are good things that will eventually overtake us.  I’ve even seen times when the good things people have sown have come crashing down the hill after them and flattened mountains in their path, so to speak.

We can choose to sow bad seed or good seed, but at the end of the day, the good seed comes from God: “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness,” Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 9:10.  Our good intentions are great, but it’s God Who supplies us with the good seed that we can plant – the good rocks we can intentionally kick – that will reap positive things in our lives.

Don’t worry if it seems like you’ve been kicking good rocks for a long time and only seeing bad rocks in front of you on the trail of life.  Those good things will catch up with you sooner or later: “you know that the Lord will reward each person for whatever good they do.” (Ephesians 6:8).