Saturday, September 06, 2014

I wouldn't make a great farmer

This week has been a very busy week as we make plans for autumn and work with the church here to discern it's future building needs. Along with that and almost on cue, the septic system here blew out and so there have been people here for two days trying to make it all happy again.

But yeah, busy. So here I am at my office on a Saturday with no sermon in the works yet. Tomorrow is tricky because its our Start Up Sunday with classes for everyone and communion and a bbq lunch, so there isn't a lot of time for a 45 minute or even a 25 minute sermon. I'm half thinking and half praying for inspiration.


Prairies. Early harvest.


But the office windows are open and I can hear the hard work going on out there in the local fields. The combines are running and harvest is underway here. It always makes the locals a bit jittery as they wait to get out there and harvest what they can get. That can make the community kind of jumpy and act out in certain ways. It's an added stress to the already many stresses that make up farming life.

Some have had serious hail damage and have lost so much, others have had sudden rain, lots of rain, and while they wait to go, the neighbour who had no rain is out there harvesting a good dry crop.

I'd be freaking out too if I was a farmer. I wouldn't be able to rest until the crop was all in, and that would probably mean from the time I put the seed in the ground till the time I got the crop off I'd be a mess. Yeah, I'd be a lousy farmer that way.  Lot's of pressure and dependence on external uncontrollable things like the weather.

So I'm trying to take the things they would normally be expected to do here at church, and do them instead. I can give lots of energy and time to rewriting drafts and thinking through processes etc. Hopefully that frees them to focus on fields and crops and like that.

Ah the combines are growing quieter now, must be moving on to another field.

These are the rhythms of life in a field and in a church. Both require patience and good timing. The better you are at those things, the better the crop that is harvested.
I suppose that goes for work in a field or in a church.