The wheat and the tares

“Funny the way it isIf you think about itSomebody’s going hungryAnd someone else is eating outFunny the way it is, not right or wrongSomebody’s heart is broken And it becomes your favorite song”      ~ Dave Matthews Band

Good and bad happens simultaneously. Everything under the sun—and some folks get the good and some the bad, and then vice versa.

Life is generally a paradox. All along the way, the journey is laced with offsetting issues. Blessings and setbacks. Challenges and advantages. The encouragement of true friends and the sarcasm of untrue acquaintances. Hurts and soothing comforts. Disappointments, and happy outcomes. Successes and failures. Pain and pleasure.

Jesus told a parable that may shed some light on this. The King James version name for this parable is the wheat and the tares’.

"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he said, 'No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

This is how life is. Bad mixed with good. The enemy is constantly sowing the tares in the midst of the good seed.

It is not going to be separated until the end. The challenge is living with “joy of the Lord as your strength” in the midst of all the mixture of circumstance.

This is a constantly recurring theme with me. I need to understand it and learn to live with it better.

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