Although he may never see it while I write it here, if someone would share this with Rev. Dale here is something that struck me about the parable of the sower when I was preparing to speak on it a few years ago: most of the soil is good soil.
The sower went out into the field with confidence that this time would be well spent - that there would be growth and a harvest. Sure, there would be some seed that would not produce due to various reasons, but the sower went out in confidence that most of the soil is good soil - that's what inspired the sower to sow the seed in the first place.
Often we focus on the different types of soil where the seed was unfruitful and we can end up "majoring on the minors", worrying about those situations where the seed is unfruitful and obsessing about how we can keep this from happening because it is heartbreaking when the seed has shallow roots, is choked out, or stolen away.
Over-focusing on this problem can end up making us over-cautious and cause us to be super-selective in how and where we plant seed vainly hoping that it is only planted in good soil. The problem with that approach is that we may miss some good soil in the process.
Although the poor soil is an important part of Jesus' message, the sower did not prejudge the soil, but spread seed on all of the soil so that no soil would be missed. The sower spread the seed everywhere knowing that most of the seed will be fruitful and in the same way we should keep on scattering the seed - because most of the soil is good soil.
