This is now the final part of the story – a parable – that involves farmer Joe.
Joe had begun to question the validity of what had become known as the restructuring of farming methods. Though he was reassured by those who were all for it that the science behind it was sound, Joe had become convinced that the methods were being used to decide the science.
So it proved to be. Though the Coalition for Rural Change in Australia was seeking to enlist as many farms in its membership, and the pressure on Joe to conform was immense, Joe decided he simply did not trust the reasoning of the new method. In time the crops of the new method began to show signs of significant problems. Those farms which had adopted the new method began to show some serious breakdowns. More and more the people running them were office workers.They had no love for the land or the animals. They were only concerned about results. Their life style was that of the city dweller. They sat in offices at computers manipulating charts and surveys, and spreadsheets, and their emphasis was on delegating and training up others to follow them. What the farms needed, however,were real hands-on people who loved the smell of the soil and the sound of contented stock, people who could smell the air and tell you it was going rain, or look at a sunset and tell you it was going to be a good day tomorrow. The farms needed leadership that was as intimately familiar with how to comfort and manage a calving cow as they were with their filing system.
The real story began to unfold though, when they began to test and compare in the laboratory the crops of those who had resisted the new way with those who had changed their methods. Then it was discovered the new-method plants had good vibrant colours, and there was a bulk in the plant that made it look like it was healthy,but they began to see that this new method of farming was producing a crop that was actually weak, and prone to diseases that had been eliminated previously.
Joe’s crops, however, though smaller in yield, were stronger. They could stand up better to the storms that swept across his farm. They were more resistant to pest and disease, and Joe himself remembered why he was a farmer. It was in his blood.The farm was central to his life. This was where he grew up. It was where he learned the lessons of life from his father. This was home. Farming was more than a job,without it he did not think he could survive.
We like to think of ourselves as important and indispensible to the Lord’s work, when the truth is that we are mere servants of the Lord. One plants seeds. Another waters,and still another may be given the joy of the harvest, but it is all of the Lord. We may have our methods and desires,our passions and our zeal – and thank the Lord for them –they too are a gift of God if they are set to humbly serving the Lord, but we are nothing before the Lord for He is the only One who makes things grow. If He withdraws His blessing for growth we had better pause and ask what the Lord is saying. It won’t be questions about our methods,but it will be questions about our living in determined commitment to the greatness and true sovereignty of Him who is LORD (1Cor 3:5-9). We need to be careful that we are not, or do not become Bible carrying churchgoers, who do not consult the Bible we carry. There is a danger of becoming Word ignorant people, either Word ignorant but passionately active in a misguided direction, or Word ignorant and apathetic with no real direction. Let us remember, while we are fellow workers of the Lord, we are still “God’s field, God’s building”. He is still in charge!
There is also a doggedness about evangelism and church growth which we do not want to acknowledge because we want the tree of the church (Matt 13:31-32) to grow large and big overnight. The seed must be scattered and watered, and the young shoots require regular tending,but storms cannot be controlled. We may seek to put up nets to protect small and critical parts of the crop from hail and birds, and install irrigation systems, but the effects of the world are not in our hands to be managed by mere mortals.