The Law of The Harvest

Driving through the Midwest in late summer, one can easily find endless rows of corn, wheat, and other crops preparing to be harvested. The harvest feeds so many and in so many different ways - and it is amazing that one little seed can be the catalyst for so great a crop. And if you've ever spent much time on the farm, you've come to know that there is preparation involved, that, if ignored, can result in disaster.

The preparation involves purposing the process with clarity, with direction. What are the steps necessary to get the desired results - a bountiful yield?

The preparation begins with the end in mind - what will this harvest look like?

The preparer evaluates resources: What are the available tools for sowing...the weather conditions...the previous year's harvest...the quality of the field?

The preparer is aware of what is sown. What can be known of the harvest without knowledge of the seed?

Likewise, unless we prepare our own lives to yield the great harvest, we may despair to find that the yield has left us unsatisfied and scratching our heads.

What is the quality of the field of your heart and your mind? The condition of your heart and mind determines the quality of the yield - your output. How have you prepared the field of your life? Have you been thinking of the outcome of your decisions from the very beginning or after the consequences have nailed you square in the jaw? Do you have a clear purpose to add clarity and direction to the process of your life's harvest? To what resources have you been seeking to prepare your harvest? Has it been the creator's wisdom or that of the creation? How is that working out?

When we apply the law of the harvest to our own lives, we are almost forced to ask ourselves what we have sown over all these years, even this week, this day, or this very hour and what then has been our harvest? Has it produced a good crop, one worthy to be laid at the feet of God or has it left us with chaff and without excuse?

You see, just as in the natural world, an absolute reality emerges around our own lives - simply put, we reap what we sow. There are no two ways around it. If we hope our lives to yield a great harvest, enough to feed not only our flesh that will one day return to the dust of the earth, but also (and more importantly) our own eternal souls and others' as well, we must start by examining the seed and soil of our own lives.

Is the farmer sowing good seed on good soil, where seed will produce a crop, thirty, sixty, even a hundred times what was sown? Or sowing on thorny soil where "the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke...making it unfruitful" (Mk 4:18-19)?

If we honestly ask ourselves just whom can be fed from the yield of our lives, some may be pleased to witness that the harvest is bountiful and should praise God, while others may realize that the harvest is lacking and need to take time to do some serious re-evaluation, make some head and gut level changes, and begin to sow with a righteous and teachable heart.

Either way, just as we are called not to be happy, but to be holy, we should make every effort to prepare now for a great harvest - while we still can...

Nate