Following God and Farming

"...what’s your field, and are you plowing it? Are you plowing too little? Are you plowing too much? What’s your sweet spot, and in ten years, will you have a small orchard that can feed your family and some of your friends? What’s your land to toil?"

When Brian and I were making decisions late last winter about transitioning in ministry, a co-worker sent me a blog entry by Donald Miller, "Following God and Farming." I saved it in the "to read again" file on my email, and re-read it again this morning. D. Miller reflects on how our choices to follow God are a lot like farming. Here are his main points, and my reflection.

1. If you have a family, that's your field to plow. If your life is a field, then your work might be a few rows, but your family is the rest of it. "Your job isn’t to feed millions, it’s to tend the land God has given you, no more, no less... I know it will feel like you are giving up something, and the truth is you are, but how do we really know what God may do with our faithfulness."

2. Plow the field God gave you. God gives us a heart, a desire for what he calls us to. You may have an opportunity to work for the kingdom, but no desire for it, then you have to ask yourself if that is what God is really calling you to.

3. Work with consistency and faithfulness. It's like a farmer driving a tractor back and forth in a field. One thing that I take with me from my time a the FOTF Institute, is something that one of our teachers, Del Tacket, said the last day, "You've got to hoe, hoe, hoe." He meant this in the form of encouragement, for our class to remind ourselves when it seems as if we are getting nowhere in whatever work we may be in. "If we buy into the instant-results mindset of our culture (that is depressed and confused itself) we will become very frustrated with God."

4. Stop measuring your crops. This is harder to remember when things are going well and we experience a lot of success. Or, when we experience the harvest after years of watering an plowing. "Keep your head down and plow your field."