Farming

Sowing oats the old-school way.  Quaint and time consuming.

I had a great conversation today with a real-life farmer.  He's a corporate suit by day (although I doubt he wears suits that often), and moonlights on his farm up in the Knoxville area.  His kids think it's cool, and so does his wife, except when he's up there for several weeks straight.

I both envy and understand his need to get away and get his hands dirty.  I also like getting my hands dirty, but doubt I could be productive enough at it to actually consider making a living from it.  I'm more of the 'play in the dirt' type.

The one thing I appreciated was when my farmer buddy, Scott, told me that after drilling the seeds in and covering them up, you fertilize and pray for rain and sun.  Even though he uses a 3.5 ton tractor to plant rather than an ox and sack of seed, much has not changed about farming in the last two millennia.

Jesus' parable of the sower from Matthew 13 uses the agricultural metaphor of sowing seeds and waiting for growth.  It's also a good reminder that, "neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth" (1 Cor 3:7).

I say this not as a cop out to ministry, just as farmers do not use it as a cop out to doing the work of farming.  The reality is that we can only control what we say and do, and who we interact with.  And even those are limited by things beyond our control.  We must trust that God's ministry through us will be the grace-filled work of Jesus Christ, and that the Holy Spirit will accomplish God's purpose.

Modern sowing.  Still hard agricultural work, but you get to ride a tractor.

It's also a reminder that we can only do so much.  We have no more control over the soil of people's hearts than the farmer does over the composition of a new field.  We do have control over our own hearts, however, and should carefully cultivate within ourselves an openness and receptivity to God's way.

It is not our job to 'make people believe' -- it's our job to love them and tell them about Jesus.  Not brow beat them with threats of hell.  Not offer nice but meaningless platitudes.  It is time to invest in ministry to others like farmers invest in farming:  ALL IN!