Is It a Good Seed?

I wrote this song because of something I learned a long time ago as a missionary that never really left me.

There's a chapter in the Book of Mormon, Alma 32, that I used constantly when I was teaching people. The doctrine is so beautiful and just so practical. It gave people a way to recognize something they were already feeling, even if they didn't have words for it yet.

Most people I talked to just wanted to know, “How do I know this is real? How do I know this is from God and not just me?”

And Alma gives them a process that he can follow. He says to treat the word like a seed and just give it a place to grow. Just enough room to try it all out.

Then he says something that always stuck with me. He describes what happens when the seed is actually good. It starts to swell inside you. It begins to enlighten your understanding. It starts to enlarge your soul. And eventually, it becomes delicious to you.

At some point on my mission, I remember realizing that those were markers. Almost like a quiet checklist like, if something was coming from God, it would do those things. It would change you in a very specific way.

So I started pointing that out to people. When they'd say, “I feel something,” I'd slow it down with them.

What exactly are you feeling? Is your understanding opening up a little? Do you feel a little more hopeful than you did a minute ago? Do you feel like you want to be better, not out of guilt, but because it feels right?

That was always my favorite part. Watching someone realize that what they were feeling had a divine pattern to it. It had direction and was doing something to them.

This song came from thinking about that again, years later.

We live in a time where everything is loud and persuasive. Everyone has an angle and just sound so confident. And it gets harder to tell the difference between something that's just convincing words... and something that's actually true.

I really wanted to write something that helped them ask the right question.

So the chorus became that actual question.

Is it a good seed? “What is it doing to me?” Is it bringing more light into my thinking? Is it stretching me in a way that feels clean and not forced? Does it make me want to hold onto it and come back to it?

That's a very different way of measuring truth.

And the more I've lived with that idea, the more I trust it. It's just so consistent. It is truth, when it's real. It works on you and starts to grow. It changes you over time.

That's what I hope this song does for someone listening to it.

I really want it to help people slow down just enough to notice what's happening inside them while they listen.

If something in it feels a little brighter... A little clearer... A little more hopeful...

Then maybe that's the point. Maybe that's the seed doing what it's always done.

Not to mention the cool acronym that the English language creates with the key words from the verse:

S: Swelling E: Enlarge E: Enlighten D: Delicious

SEED!