As our lives move forward, things happen to us and around us that can affect us and affect the condition of the soil in our hearts. Disappointment, hurt, anger, injustice, loss: all of these will leave us with hard, rocky, thorny, brittle or shallow soil that can’t retain the seed God is giving us, unless we regularly come to the Lord, allowing Him to soften and massage those hard dry places with His oil of joy and water it with His living water.