This is a heads-up to any one who doesn't know that a week from today is “Plow Monday,” the start of the English agricultural year. Of course, no good farmer needs to be told this. He knows the time to plow, or plant. Just imagine if he
didn’t.
Not being much of a farmer, I thought 2013 was my season for planting. Altha and I had moved to
a new home, new state, ready for ‘new’ things. But then, God began plowing. Familiar with Hosea’s words “It is
time to break up your fallow [unplowed] ground” (Hosea 10:12), I figured I had
some hard soil that needed breaking up before I could be fully productive! Little did I know how much!
But, God is the archetypal agronomist—who “instructs the farmer and
teaches him the right way to plow” (Is 28:24). While I do not fully
understand everything, I know He cares enough not to leave me fallow. When David was in turmoil, he said, “I have calmed (meaning to "level or make smooth") my
soul” (Ps. 131:2). When the plowing starts, will you take calm in your Heavenly Father's horticultural wisdom?
I’ve not written much this month because Altha and I have been busy moving in to our
new home in San Jose, and doing the many things necessary to get settled. And of course these many things were not accomplished without a certain amount of stress. My days have been
full.
The other day I was thinking about the time (right after Peter’s denial)
that he and the Disciples went fishing. After a night of catching
nothing, a stranger shouted from the shore to cast their net on the other side
of the boat; and immediately the net was filled—you might say, to the breaking
point. (Did it break?) That’s when Peter knew the ‘stranger’ was Jesus. It seems this event was perfectly timed to remind
Peter of what Jesus had promised 3 years earlier: a “full-net” fishers-of-men
ministry.
Even so, I knew that when I joined my Father’s “fishing” business, I could expect a full net (Col. 2:10).
But honestly, there have been times in the last few months when I thought it would break. But I also know He will never give more than I can hold (1 Cor. 10:13); He won't break me (Is. 42:3). That's why I can answer my own question, No, Peter's net did not break that day (and neither will yours or mine).
In David Wilkerson’s daily devotional today he asks this question: Have you ever thought about what it means to truly lay down your life for your brothers and sisters? (1 John 3:16) My immediate answer would be: “it means to give up your own agenda to serve the needs of another.” Or in Paul’s exact words: “thinking of others as better than yourself” (Philippians 2:3). But in order to truly do that, you have to be dead to your ‘self.’ Therefore, the only kind of Christian who can lay down his life for a brother is one who is already dead.
Some years ago, I went through a period of intense breaking. As the Spirit revealed to me how much of self-life had been in control, I asked for forgiveness of those I had hurt because of it, I repented of not laying down my life for those I called brothers and sisters. Though for years I had been teaching others to die to self, I needed a deeper death to my own. Before I could go genuinely consider others’ needs as more important than my own, I needed to die a deeper death to my own. Of course, the word 'dying' is in the present continuous tense, isn't it! And today, I need to be broken again. As new opportunities require more breakings! Serving others requires selflessness and humility, daily! God help us!
The title of this blog posting is the name of a sonnet by William Wordsworth. It was written in 1807, expressing his view that people were too caught up in “making it” to pay attention to the beautiful things in nature. We can easily use the same words to express our concern that Christians not allow the affairs of everyday life, careers, family, and even church activities to monopolize their time and attention and miss seeing the things that God is doing.
Even as our nation and the world seem to be ‘breaking’ apart, so also God will use these anxious times to break us, His children, from the world’s attraction, and in this process, we will see how much we still love this world. During a time of material prosperity and spiritual bankruptcy, the prophet Hosea warned Israel they need to “break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord” (10:12).
Trials and tribulations—and all sufferings—are meant to break us, detaching us from earthly things. But it is very difficult to detach yourself from this world when you are prospering and things are going well. But when we are suddenly deprived of the “things that are seen”, we realize how tenuous is our hold on them, reminding us we are but “strangers and aliens” here—just passing through! And then our attachment begins to loosen.
And conversely, the deprivation provokes us to think more about the glory which is waiting for us. And our ‘groaning’ increases, as we eagerly await the revealing of our sonship in Christ, and the redemption of these mortal bodies. (See yesterday’s blog posting: “Are You Groaning?”)
