the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.
[ Luke 10:2 ]

i never could have imagined how exciting it is to grow something from the dirt. i mean, kelly and i had been looking forward to starting a garden back when we were apartment living, but we never anticipated how fulfilling it is to plant a seed and watch it grow.

we are dirt farmers, i suppose. a small plot of land, a few built-in crops, no machinery (that is, no machinery yet, other than a hose…). just the basic hand tools to make it happen and very little know-how going in.

the row you see in the picture above is just one of the rows we’ve made. right now it’s housing 4 tomato plants and 12 (dead) garlic plants.

for us, working by hand with a shovel and a rake, that row was hard to make. really hard. but, like i said, the activity is so rewarding as we work together and watch the progress of our labors, that we don’t mind the sweaty clothes and sore muscles.

on one hand we might think we’re at a disadvantage to people who farm with tractors and well-routed irrigation and other conveniences, but on the other hand we realize that we don’t want a large-scale farm, and many of those conveniences would be useless for us.

we want our little plot with our little plants to be fruitful. that’s our home. that’s our plan. that’s what we’re equipped for.

in the mean time we have access to some amazing resources…home depot is about 1 mile away, we’ve been given an assortment of books on gardening, we have the internet at our fingertips to look up centuries of wisdom…at this point, the potential for us to learn about what we’re doing is pretty limitless.

but here’s the thing…if kelly and i don’t work in our garden, no one will. if we don’t work, the garden dies. and, while that wouldn’t be the greatest of tragedies, on some level we can see that if our garden died and lay dormant, that land is just wasted.

i find that our spiritual service to the Lord is much the same. i think we underestimate how important it is for us to work in the plot of land that God desires us to work in. we may see bigger and better across the road, but there is a profound reason for why God puts us where He puts us.

and, sadly, though the fields are many, the workers are few. and when we don’t labor, or when we work somewhere the God didn’t place us, then fruit dies. plants wither. land lays dormant. the fields are wasted.

the work is hard, but it’s wonderful. it’s rewarding and fulfilling and exciting. but, if i’m not content to work in the place God has provided for me, then all the wonder of the work is lost.

blessings

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working a vineyard | June 16th, 2008