There’s a reason many basketball coaches insist on starting each season by practicing the fundamentals. Sometimes as we learn more and get better at things, we forget the basics that we’ve known since the beginning. That can be true in our faith lives as well.
In John 4:35 Jesus says to his disciples, “‘Don’t you have a saying, “It’s still four months until harvest”? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.’”
The concept of harvest is fundamental for disciples of Jesus. It was his primary mission, so it becomes ours as well. In fact, I don’t think it would be a stretch to refer to the time between Jesus’ resurrection and the day of judgment as harvest season. The old world will pass and the new heaven and new earth begin once the harvest is finished.
Am I a harvester? Am I showing up and doing the work? In this same chapter of John, Jesus refers to the “wages” of righteousness that will be noted and remitted in heaven, wages that some workers are earning in the harvest field. I don’t really know what form those earnings will take, but I do wonder how much I’ve earned. Probably not as much as I want to think.
Most of my time is taken up with my vocation – the work I do to earn a living – and general life functions like feeding and caring for myself, keeping a house, and so forth. For many Christians, missional discipleship is an avocation – that thing you do because it’s the passion of your heart. Unfortunately, when it comes to what gets our juice, avocation is often behind other parts of life. It just isn’t as urgent.
Right now combines are busy all over my county, bringing in the harvest of corn and soybeans that fuels much of Iowa’s economy. That’s a good reminder to me that anything diverting me from God’s harvest is a distraction from my purpose in being alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment