the harvest

The parable of the sower is unspeakably rich and beautiful. It is such a testament to how to build relationships and make much of Jesus. When we face the desperate situation of those who don't know Jesus, the temptation is to lessen our mission, by expecting a rich and and plentiful harvest immediately and neglecting our field if that is not made manifest. The way of Christ is counter-cultural. Our culture wants us to maximize results for minimum effort in every situation. The bigger you field and the more you harvest in the shortest amount of time is the ultimate goal. How much money can you make? What stocks do we invest in? Diet supplements to lose weight fastest. Multi-tasking. Cliff notes so you don't have to read the book. Email so you don't have to send a letter. Text so you don't have to call. This is so me. I don't know if anyone is as bad about this as I am.
And it is so evident in my impatience with ministry and relationship building. I so quickly become discouraged when relationships aren''t deepening when girls aren't growing, when maturing-personal and communal is occurring at an excruciatingly slow place. And then throw in the impoverished community and the struggle is just staggering. Which is why we want to give a few bucks or a an hour or whatever, because the issues are deeply rooted and widespread.
But lets look at this through the perspective Jesus uses. With Jesus one person becomes an entire field. Think about the labor and care a farmer puts into his field. The time to develop rich soil before you can even plant seeds and the entire process of nourishing seeds to grow..the harvest is light years a way it seems. What if we were to care for individuals as fields? We get frustrated when there seems to be no harvest, but all we did was throw seeds on infertile soil of surface level relationships. Of course there wont be a harvest. The seeds weren't even planted, let alone given the opportunity to grow. The kicker is that there is a risk that we may pick one person and care for them and get to know them and plant seeds and nourish and grow those seeds in them and still not reap the harvest. The beauty is that the harvest belongs to God just as the field does, so its not our harvest. Any harvest is entirely due to what he has done in our hearts. We may have the glorious blessing of seeing life changed and transformed by the gospel but God asks us for obedience, not for results. Thats so beautiful to me. That you can labor your whole life on a few people and maybe not see any of them come to Jesus and Jesus will welcome you into the kingdom with open arms saying well done my good and faithful servant. Because there is no pressure on us. All will be done and already has been done by Jesus. We are not responsible for anyone's salvation. Yet we are called, every single one of us, to go out and make disciples and follow Jesus. Whether that is at college, in Africa, with our kids, with our co workers, in our churches, on our streets, in our brothels...one call. So if you don't have that person or that family yet, the person that you are willing to die for daily to pursue them, starting with the soil of the relationship and moving forth in a lifelong process...pray hard about who it may be. They're everywhere. The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. And if, like me, you've taken on too big of a harvest that you cannot possibly care for, we cant selfishly keep that out of yearning for our own power and significance in the kingdom. Our significance is entirely based on Christ, and his labor through us, not the harvest.