When I think about all the life lessons I learned on my dad’s farm, the question he asked me late in the day 60 years ago still lingers in my heart. Although I have written about this in a previous TGN’s, God brought it back to me this morning.
Today it’s hard to have a conversation without someone bringing up politics, out of control social issues and the mess the world is in. I can usually tell how much time a person spends on social media & bad “news” when the veins pop out on their neck, if their face turns red and if they start talking between their teeth. All the issues have one thing in common. We have no control over the outcome. In fact, outside of letting our voice be heard by our elected officials, voting and praying, we have no control or influence.
So, what is a person to do?
I have always been very up on current affairs. I have been the “vein-popping-red-in-the-face-talking- between-my-teeth” guy. I loved politics. It was my minor in college. My dream was to run and hold public office. But several years ago, the Holy Spirit began working on my heart… my focus. That’s when He recalled that question.
It was late one afternoon in spring. We were planting soybeans in a 400–500-acre buckshot field. I was far enough ahead of the planter when I pulled my field cultivator up to dad’s pick up. I said, “Hey dad, when are we going to the house to eat?” Dad answered me with that “matter of fact” tone and said, “Do the lights on your tractor work?” I responded, “I don’t know.” He then ended our chat with, “You better check because we are planting beans tonight. I’ll send someone up to the little store to get us some cheese, crackers, and drinks but we are planting beans tonight, Robert!” The clear message, go back to work!
About 8 hours later, around 1 or 2 in the morning we finished planting and headed home. By 8 that morning it started raining. Had we not planted that night the field would not have been planted that year. I remember dad later telling me he had watched the weather forecast the day before. He knew a storm was coming. He did not need to keep watching the weather every hour. He knew he could not control when the storm would hit. The only thing he could control was how he chose to manage his time. He chose to do his job. To relentlessly use all his skills & resources to maximize the harvest value.
It does not take a rocket scientist to recognize we are not on a sustainable course. There is a storm brewing of historic proportion. God told us through His Word, the Bible. “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Acts 17:30-31. For more details read the Books of Zechariah, Daniel, and Revelation.
If you are a Follower of Christ my dad’s question is for you. “Do the lights on your tractor work?” We must relentlessly be planting God’s Word like never before. Stop worrying about the color of the carpet or what you think about the church coffee… get out in the field and plant the good seed… The Good News.
Jesus told us in Matthew 9:37-38 “Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” It is all about the harvest.
Challenge! Read Matthew 25:14-30, “Parable of the Three Servants” and ask yourself, which servant am I?
