Four categories of "hearing", which one are you?

Daily Devotional Podcast. Follow along with blog post.

Have you ever the story or parable of the sower? It goes like this: "Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.” (Mark 4:9-20).

Those are four categories of "hearing". Which one are you? Are you:

1. Seed along the path: the person who hears, but absolutely nothing changes?

2. Seed on rocky ground: the person who hears and is all excited until trouble and challenges come?

3. Seed among thorns: the person who hears, but worry, greed, and deception gets the best of him?

4. Seed on good ground: the person who hears and accepts what he hears, and who produces great things in his life and the life of others?

The four categories of "hearing." Which one are you? I guess we all need to deeply search ourselves, right?