I planted cantaloupe.
I watered it. I fertilized it. I weeded around it. I kept the bugs off of it. I checked it every day. I waited patiently for it to ripen. I even thumped it with my finger just like the people who know about this kind of stuff do when they are picking out a good watermelon or cantaloupe in the grocery store. (I'm not sure why they thump them, but I have seen them do it - so I did it.)
When the day finally came, and I was sure that it had been thumped enough, I picked my prize cantaloupe and proudly brought it into the kitchen for the whole family to admire. But, to my surprise, when I cut into this perfect cantaloupe, I found that it was not a cantaloupe at all.
It seems that I planted my cantaloupe a little too close to my cucumbers. The cantaloupe had cross-pollinated with the cucumbers (My first clue should have been all of the little round cucumbers that I had been growing) Now I have a garden full of canta-cumbers, which are not very tasty and basically useless.
The Spiritual lesson to this silly little story is obvious. It is something simple that I learned as a child back in Sunday School:
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
(I Corinthians 15:33 NIV)
We don't like to admit it, or talk about it, but living too close to or becoming too comfortable with certain groups of people can influence and change us - cross-pollinate us if you will. We may still look like a child of God on the outside, but in the end, when all but the soul is stripped away, we may end up being something entirely different.
We are all influenced in one way or another by people and the culture in which we live.
The Bible tells us that we are to keep ourselves unspotted from the world (James 1:27) . Yet, simply avoiding sinful worldly people is not the answer. Paul says in I Corinthians 5 that to avoid immoral people we would have to leave this world altogether
Tomatoes and corn grow great together in the same garden. Neither are influenced in a bad way by the other. It is only certain groups that can not live and grow together. Notice the people whom Paul tells us to avoid in II Timothy 3:5 "Those who have a form of Godliness, but deny the power thereof." In other words there are some religious folks that you would do well to avoid.
I watered it. I fertilized it. I weeded around it. I kept the bugs off of it. I checked it every day. I waited patiently for it to ripen. I even thumped it with my finger just like the people who know about this kind of stuff do when they are picking out a good watermelon or cantaloupe in the grocery store. (I'm not sure why they thump them, but I have seen them do it - so I did it.)
When the day finally came, and I was sure that it had been thumped enough, I picked my prize cantaloupe and proudly brought it into the kitchen for the whole family to admire. But, to my surprise, when I cut into this perfect cantaloupe, I found that it was not a cantaloupe at all.
It seems that I planted my cantaloupe a little too close to my cucumbers. The cantaloupe had cross-pollinated with the cucumbers (My first clue should have been all of the little round cucumbers that I had been growing) Now I have a garden full of canta-cumbers, which are not very tasty and basically useless.
The Spiritual lesson to this silly little story is obvious. It is something simple that I learned as a child back in Sunday School:
Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”
(I Corinthians 15:33 NIV)
We don't like to admit it, or talk about it, but living too close to or becoming too comfortable with certain groups of people can influence and change us - cross-pollinate us if you will. We may still look like a child of God on the outside, but in the end, when all but the soul is stripped away, we may end up being something entirely different.
We are all influenced in one way or another by people and the culture in which we live.
The Bible tells us that we are to keep ourselves unspotted from the world (James 1:27) . Yet, simply avoiding sinful worldly people is not the answer. Paul says in I Corinthians 5 that to avoid immoral people we would have to leave this world altogether
Tomatoes and corn grow great together in the same garden. Neither are influenced in a bad way by the other. It is only certain groups that can not live and grow together. Notice the people whom Paul tells us to avoid in II Timothy 3:5 "Those who have a form of Godliness, but deny the power thereof." In other words there are some religious folks that you would do well to avoid.
