The Norm in the Harvest

Sitting in church this morning I watched a pastor do a great job. A Cinderella story. The former pastor left, they asked this guy who was heading overseas to fill in, and “bang,” hired and turned a good church of thousands with a huge staff into a very good church.

I was reading that the seed that fell on the good soil brought forth fruit with patience. Just looking at the imagery of the bearing of fruit, from planting the seed to reaping, you know it takes time and patience. We want quick results and success. I see now it’s unrealistic. Stories like the one above make “instant” look easy, but it’s not the norm? Given that fruitlessness is not an option, and burying our pound is not smiled upon, do we have the patience to bear fruit? It seems to me that many begin with the intent to bear fruit for Christ, but the need to work and be patient and keep focused leads to giving up and conforming and defining a norm that is not so “idealistic.” God will always love us, so we can let it slide and concentrate on fellowship, Bible study and worship.

Here we are knocking on several doors following the Lord, sensing that we’re doing what He wants, but not seeing easy fruit. Things are coming, but slowly. And just at the time I was reading about bearing fruit with patience, I read Hebrews 5:8, “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.”

Surely Jesus should have been cut some slack, but He wasn’t. The more I read the Gospels, I realize how little we have of what Jesus did. We know little of His 1st year of ministry before He chose the 12. We know nothing of what it was like to walk everyday waiting on the Spirit for the next day’s marching orders. I don’t think the Son had an “easy” button. He had tons of opposition and even His disciples did not appear to glow brightly as He approached the cross. Jesus had to suffer normal life.

Slow progress of hearts being shaped by waiting on and seeking for God seem to be the true picture. It seems that whether it was Jesus or Moses or David or Abraham or Paul, a “heart” had to be forged in the heat of striving for God. The night before Jesus chose the 12 he isolated Himself and prayed all night. That wasn’t for show. It was sincere as He, humanly, knew how important this decision was and how vital the need. And like Jesus, in this progress forward, we need to stay in the heat of the forge. We need to be focused on the harvest and accomplishing the will of the Father and being ambassadors of Christ in order for the process to be completed. Only in following Christ in this way, staying in the harvest, choosing hunger, crying out, doing anything and everything He points us to, will we see the fruit He promises. How many have given up too quickly?

So what is the difference between someone in the harvest enduring slow progress and the happy drifting believer? As Jesus says to His disciples in the beatitudes, “happy is he who chooses to not be happy (unengaged in our call as disciples to reach the lost).”

One chooses to keep striving to hear Christ’s voice in His harvest. One is compelled by the sense that we must reach out and make disciples. One walks willingly into the fire where passion and duty and privilege and compassion and love and joy melt together into one love and heart for Christ. One willingly chooses to suffer the loss of all things for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ, to be like Him and share in His sufferings. One senses that necessity is laid him, where if he doesn’t share the Gospel he’ll be wrecked within, and he is driven to become a slave to all, that he might win the more. These two people are very different people. One seems happy and the other restless. One day, one will laugh, the other will weep.

One goes slowly, suffering as a good soldier, knowing not to get entangled in civilian pursuits since he lives to satisfy the one who enlisted him. One goes slowly, knowing that he will not be acceptable unless he competes according to the rules. One goes slowly, knowing that it is the hard working farmer who will be rewarded.

The testimony of great men is that the way to accomplishment is the hard road. I could wish for the instant success story, but since suffering is the norm and fruit comes with patience, I’ll pray that the Lord gives me the works as long as He’s in it.

Theodore Roosevelt said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Morpheous said, “Do you want the red pill or the blue pill.”

David said, “Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage and He will strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.”

Jesus said, “Follow Me.”