Friday September 2, 2011

When I was in high school, I worked on a large dry wheat farm in the summer. My mom would pack me a frozen tunafish sandwich, some ripply chips, a couple of cookies, and a drink for lunch, I would drive 8-10 miles to the fields and fill the propane tanks of the tractor. After firing it up, I would begin the long day of breaking the crust of the ground with the crust breaker, or dig deeper in the dirt with the one way plows. The purpose of each implement was to get rid of the weeds growing in the dirt so that we could plant wheat in the fall and wait until the next spring and summer to harvest the wheat. We would do this a couple of times before the seeder would be pulled into the field to put down wheat seed. Plowing the field was only for the purpose of getting rid of the weeds and preparing the soil for accepting the seeds that would be our future crop.

In Isaiah I read a passage about plowing. “When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field?” (Isaiah 28:24, 25 NIV). At first glance it doesn’t mean much but when you have been farming it makes a lot of sense. The purpose of farming is not to cut down the weeds. The purpose of farming is not to see fields completely clean or have smooth tilled soil. The purpose of farming is to produce a crop that can help you pay bills and produce food for you and others. If you are continually plowing you will never have a crop. In our personal lives, what is our purpose in life? Are we continually preparing ourselves for something and have little to show for it? Could it be that we resemble the saying of Tagore, an Indian philosopher who said, “I spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung.” Plowing a field is important for planting a crop in the same way that we need to prepare for the purpose that God has us here on earth. We just need to be careful that we are not putting too much energy in getting ready and more energy in carrying out our destiny.

On this journey, make sure that you are putting energy in your purpose in life and not in preparing the soil only.