Popple seed season

August 3, 2007

By Randy Mantik

A few months ago with the advent of spring the popple trees in our community again made their presence known. Their seeds float through the air in a fluffy, white mass that looks like an elongated cotton puff. Sometimes there get to be so many of them it looks like snow.

You want to be careful about opening your mouth or breathing in too close to one. You can suck it up in a heartbeat, and there you are gagging and hacking away like a cat trying to spit up a hairball. I try to keep the garage door closed. Once they get in there it’s a real challenge to get them swept back out.

It’s amazing that those fluffy, little seeds have within them the ability to produce a tall, strong tree, given enough time and the right conditions. That illustrates a much more sinister reality. Sinful thoughts are kind of like that too. They may charm for a time and seem harmless and inconsequential. But if left unchallenged, there will come a day when the little seed of a sinful thought has become a full-grown tree in our consciousness with deep roots impossible to just sweep away.

God’s Word pulls no punches when it comes to the destruction caused by sinful thinking. “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:13-15, NIV).

If you are falling into immorality, it is not because our culture is so terrible. If you are cheating on your taxes, it is not because our government is corrupt. If you are stealing from your employer, it is not because they are so unfair to their employees. You have made a choice and you have justified and excused your sin.

In our hearts and minds, it’s popple seed season all the time. The seeds of thought and intent drift through our consciousness constantly. We must learn to filter them and keep the bad thoughts from staying. How do we do that?

Well, for one thing, it’s easier to keep it out if we don’t invite it in. Someone once said, “I can’t keep the birds from flying over my head, but I sure can keep them from making a nest in my hair!”

If a seed has no good soil and is not nurtured, it won’t grow. We need to be so filled with the presence of God and His Spirit that there’s simply no room for anything else! “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18). It also helps to be filled with fruitful purpose, “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:11).

The bottom line here is that if you want to keep your heart free from sin and impurity, you must keep yourself in Christ’s love. “Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life” (Jude 1:21).

The “popple seeds” of this life, and all they appear to promise, are so temporary. Take hold of Christ and fill your life with the eternally worthwhile.

Randy Mantik is senior pastor of Crossroads Church of the Assemblies of God in Pembine, Wis.