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For as far back as I can remember, after all the novelty carriers like “rock climber” and “superhero” had worn off, I’ve wanted to be a farmer. The kind that got up early before the sunrise, to set out feed and milk the cows. I’ve been told that its a lot of work and that there’s nothing fun or romantic about it at all. It was the simplicity of it all that attracts me. The ground is God’s, and therefore that which springs from it is given by His grace. A tiny seed goes in, and a pumpkin comes out.
As such an interest in the earth is concerned, I’ve too always been interested in land; a love that’s probably due to observing my father work many acres of government timber. However, as much as I may desire a claim on this earth, this reality has always eluded me. And I am reminded of a sermon I preached last Sunday from Hebrews 11, “they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own… they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one.”
I have a plant that sits on my ledge that I have had alive with me since college some dozen years ago. Whenever I water this plant, the soil gives off this wonderful “earthy” smell. Its akin to the same smell after a fresh spring rain, and the soil in Emily’s garden smells the same way. This is quite easily my favorite smell. I love hard work and the labor of my hands. When many others spend a sabbath in penitent rest, I find that the most restful thing I do is work. I love the grittiness of farming, the cold in the winter, the sweat of the summer, and machinery and the fir and the foul. I do think I’d make a good farmer.
When Jesus calls his first disciples he calls them as fishermen. He gives them a new calling, yet it is one in kind with their passions. Jesus says, “I will make you fishers of men” (Mark 1:17). I have come to believe that my missionary service is a response to a similar calling. I believe that we are tenant farmers, but the ground that we work is the hard hearts of those who would one day believe and belong to the King.
The task is not easy however. The harvest for a farmer is hard earned, and careful planning and patience are his allies. The same is true for the missionary. We don’t see the exuberant fruit of surrender to Jesus that the training videos would aspire is normal for a missionary. Instead we receive resistance, and rocky soil. Very rarely does the seed we plant take root. Most of the time it is devoured by the devil or washed away by the world.
A quick harvest or not, the job description is that of a tenant farmer. We live and work this land seeking a crop and harvest of righteousness, not to own the property, but to serve the Master to reaps from many lands. May He always give us strength and courage to endure the difficult soil and long stretches in between seasons.