Amber Waves of Grain

Many of you will be surprised by this story.  I think a lot of people assume that since I am originally from Texas, have a degree in the ag field, wear Wranglers and drive a truck that I grew up on a farm…  Well, that’s not the case.  Though I took a lot of classes that talked about farming, I haven’t had many real life experiences with it.  I have been around livestock quite a bit, but most of my experience came in the meat lab, packing plant, and processing plant…

After last night, I will never eat a piece of bread the same again, nor will I get upset when I have to share the road with a combine, nor will I sing America the Beautiful the same again, nor will I ever read the Bible the same again, nor will I forget that the field is ripe for harvest…

I got to be a part of a custom harvesting crew for the evening.  A friend from our church invited me to join them to see what it was all about.  In some ways, I felt like a little boy getting to do something exciting and different for the first time.  Anyway, I learned a few lessons that I would like to pass on.

First of all, my words from God lately have been perseverance and patience.  My friend has learned the art of perseverance and patience.  His wife fought a long term illness for many many years and went home to be with the Lord about a month ago.  To me, he is the model for loyalty, dedication, and love.  In sickness, and in health, in good times and bad…  On top of that, he owns a small custom harvesting operation.  This is not a job for the weak at heart.  What if it rains, what if it hails, what if we have a drought, what if the machines break down…  Last night, I believe I saw some of the fruit from the perseverance seeds that have been planted through life’s trials.  When I first got there, the starter had just gone out on one of the combines.  He had been up until about 3:30 the morning before and was back in the field by 10:00 that morning.  It was now 6:00 p.m., which is not a great time to start trying to find parts.  He calmly came up with a solution, not getting agitated at all.  While one of the crew was taking care of the starter, my friend moved the combine to the next field.  A couple of us moved other vehicles, as well.  My friend opened up that field, made a few rounds, came to empty the machine, and found that the tire was losing air.  He calmly said, “Well, we’re done with that one for the night”, and he began thinking up a solution for that problem.  In the meantime, the other combine was back up and running, so we went and picked it up.  It ran well, and we cut until about midnight.  He said to me, “Well, you wanted to experience harvest.  This is it, problems and all”.

Secondly, my friend explained to me how the combine works.  I was amazed at how efficient it was.  There was a lot of waste that needed to be removed to get to the seed, and this machine did it quickly.  As he was teaching me about the inner workings, words from the Bible came alive, such as winnow (separating the chaff from the seed) and thresh (removing the seed from the plant).  There are so many passages of Scripture that are coming to my mind right now.  I will forever see them in a different light.  John 4:35b says, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields!  They are ripe for the harvest.”  Last night, as it looked like rain clouds could possibly come in, there was a sense of urgency to get as much grain in as possible.  Today, as I think about this, there is a sense of urgency to share the gospel with as many people as possible.  There will come a time when the wheat will be separated from the tares.  There will be a time when the chaff will be winnowed and burned, and the grain will go to the storehouse.  There will be a day when it will be too late, but that day hasn’t come yet. 

Thirdly, I thought about what God is doing right now.  Matthew 9:37-38 says, “Then He (Jesus) 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’”.  We have been praying for “workers” for about five years to help with Wings of Love, our ministry to single parent families.  All of a sudden, it seems that God is moving in a mighty way for this ministry.  We took 6 people to a leadership conference in May, our Outreach Ministry Team wants to come alongside this ministry and make it our church’s “niche ministry” because no one else is doing it in our area, our Sr. Minister had a meeting yesterday with a man who wants to join this team and already has some ideas, I had lunch with a friend today who wants to join us…  I’m about to email our Prayer Partners to cover all of this in prayer!

Lastly, I learned that threshing involves the wheat heads rubbing against each other.  This action removes the seeds from the plant.  If we want to be effective and truly make disciples as Jesus commissioned us to do, we need to GO into our community and world and build relationships.  People aren’t just going to come to us.  We need to be rubbing shoulders with people in the community, meeting needs, and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

May you GO today, and may God use you in His mighty harvest!