Much To Do and So Little Time

I Have Never Been A Farmer.

Not in the sense of this picture, although I would love to own a farm with this view! My dad grew up on a share-croppers farm, and everyone in the family participated in the production of a crop. This was their livelihood. Until recently I have never planted anything that went from ground to table. Never! But what little we have done is so enjoyable!

Now. Don’t give me wrong, I love to drive by farms, visit them, and even wish I had the acreage a farmer utilizes to make a living, yet you could never classify me as a farmer. The work looks so very hard, complex, and expensive! It’s outside my “wheel house”!

Everything a farmer does has consequences, as well as payback. What they do today will produce results in the future, maybe not tomorrow, or next week, but perhaps weeks, months, or even years from now. How they apply themselves today, and tomorrow, will not produce immediate profitable results until the right time. In fact, I often wonder if farmers grow weary of all the doing without seeing results.  With a farmer, everything exists to produce a harvest, all else becomes secondary.

Think of it like this, if a farm fails to produce a harvest, can you call them a true farm? No, they are just “make believe” farms. They might look like a farm, but without a production then they make false claims.

What if the “church” fails to produce, are we still a church?

When Noah came off the ark with all the livestock and his family, scripture records his first focus like this.

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. And the LORD was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”

Genesis 8:20-22 NLT

Notice that last verse – while the earth remains, planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer, and winter…day and night. A farmer has 365 days per year, from beginning to the ending, no matter the time or weather, with care and attention to details, the harvest will be celebrated! Good seed is required, and with a lot of hard work, it is taken from dormancy to harvest. Do you have the good seed in your hands?

Look at it within the framework of the church – we prepare the ground, we plant seeds, sometimes actively sowing and at other times we unconsciously spread Christ to the world, then we nurture, provide a good growing environment, and eventually a harvest will be reaped!

So, we focus on keeping our hands doing the profitable work, day in, and day out. In fact, farming is often a hardscrabble life, even with the modern technology that makes it easier to do, we simply become accountable for larger fields.

There will be long, dry seasons, where you must nurture the ground by your own sweat and effort. There will be pestilences where you fight against the enemy that is all about destroying your hard work. Weeds must be mercilessly pulled from the soil (remember, one man’s weed is another man’s flower…). The soil will become hard from the winter and needs to be tilled and broken up. Buried deep underground, and over time, rocks will move closer to the surface, and they must be removed lest they destroy the equipment. Someday the sun will blaze, other days the wind and rain will pound the earth.

Some days you will not feel like doing the work of a farmer, but rest assured, there is no true break from the task of maintaining the environment so that you can rejoice on the day of harvest! Then the crop must be stored and used for the correct purpose.

The Apostle Paul even added a different viewpoint to this process: “I have planted, Apollos has watered, but God gave the increase.” (1 Corinthians 3:6). One thought of this, perhaps,  is that you do not have to be there to enjoy the increase. It’s God moving upon your work to produce the results, some day down the road.

Do your part and God will do His  part!

Here’s what I’m thinking today.

Where are all the laborers that are willing to do their part?
How do we sow, nurture and reap?
What’s our first step?
What training do we need?
Do we have the tools to accomplish the work?
How do we prepare?
What seed are you sowing?

What is the duty of each of us?

Think with me a moment. The planter is each of us who have some message to share, an audience to reach, and a result to achieve. Our language skills are unique, or ministry is varied, our personal desires to accomplish is unique.

I’m thinking about Philip in Acts 8. He’s reaching Samaria, but God directs him to new territory, Gaza, where it just so happens that a man from Ethiopia is reading the prophet Isaiah on his trip home.

Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. 
Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 
The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” 
And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him.
 (Acts 8:30-31 NLT)

He finds someone who’s studying, hears the verse, asks if he understands, and then opens up the scripture to him from that very location.

I believe our job is to share in totality to any who will perhaps hear and find the message of the seed. If they are hungry and willing, good! If not, perhaps this is simply one that it will take time and example to reach!

Let me unwind this thought strictly from the teachings of Jesus.

He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Matthew 13:3-9 NLT

Jesus recognized the minimal effort that some are willing to do or even the hanger-on’s who are not willing to do anything but watch from the sidelines, but the search is always on to find the workers who see the vision of the farm, just as importantly find the right soil to sow the seed into.

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.”

Matthew 9:35-38 NLT

There is a continual harvest based on the results of those laborers who have gone before us. We need Visionaries who see the hope of the harvest but realize it takes time to get from nothing to something. The church needs continual laborers who come in and do their part to produce a harvest, even if they are not around to celebrate in the harvest at some future date.

If all we do is enter the church to handle our own personal needs then we are not laborers for the harvest. Jesus says every one of us should reach the world after we receive the Holy Spirit! (Acts 1:8) What are you reaching with? The Seed. The Good News. The Gospel! (Matthew 24:14)

The three great essentials to achieve anything worth while are: Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness, and Common sense.

Thomas A. Edison

There is much truth about this. Hard work, Stick-to-itiveness. Common sense. There is so much to do, and so little time. Someone needs to break up and prepare the soil. This is often thankless work, but you do not get the results without proper preparation. Another needs to do the back-breaking work of planting the seed. Someone else needs to constantly nurture the seed against all the dangers that exist until maturity. The harvest will come at its own time, and not a moment before it’s ready, whether you are there or not, but someone needs to be on hand to reap the end results. And it may not be the one who prepares the soil, or plants the seed. (John 4:38)

Are you the farmer that is so desperately needed today? What’s your role? Where and when do you fit in? Are you prepared to do what your calling might be?