Have you ever tried digging in what looked like perfectly good ground and suddenly—clang! You hit a rock. From the surface, you didn’t see it because there was dirt over it. Grass may have even been growing around it. But once you started digging deeper, you discovered something buried underneath. Jesus says that can happen in us.

5The seed that fell on rocky ground actually began to grow. From the surface, everything looked promising. The problem wasn’t what people could see. The problem was underneath. There wasn’t enough depth for the roots. Yesterday we looked at the path—what others have done to me.

Today gets a little more personal. The rocks represent what I’ve allowed to remain in me. Someone may have genuinely hurt you. That happened to you . But bitterness can be what you allowed to remain in you . Someone disappointed you is what happened to you. But resentment, offense or unforgiveness may be what remained in you. And eventually your roots keep hitting the rock.

That’s when something happening in one relationship begins affecting another relationship that had nothing to do with it. An old offense shapes a new conversation. Yesterday’s disappointment affects today’s opportunity. We wonder why the same things keep breaking, and the problem may have nothing to do with what’s happening on the surface. Our roots keep running into something buried underneath. It’s possible to look good on the outside while carrying things beneath the surface that keep us from going deeper.

Bitterness. Resentment. Offense. Pride. Envy. Unforgiveness. God doesn’t uncover those things to shame us. He exposes them because He wants something better for us. Maybe you’ve been asking, “Why isn’t anything growing?” And God is saying, “There’s a rock here. Let’s deal with it.” That’s dirty work. But God loves you too much to let something buried yesterday keep breaking what He wants to grow tomorrow.