We're All Farmers

I don’t know about you, but I have spent most of my life in suburbia. And I’ve never even planted a garden. So how can the title of this blog post be true? How can all of us – no matter where we live or whether or not we have a green thumb – be farmers? When it’s not about vegetables, fruits, or grain but rather consequences of our choices, words, and behavior. Galatians 6:7-8 says…

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. (ESV)

I love how reaping what we sow applies to both the good and bad we do. We’re believing a lie if we think we can consistently do wrong yet not suffer for it. And it’s a blessing to know that the choices we make that honor the Lord will ultimately be rewarded.

We might be familiar with this principle, yet I read a verse this morning that gave me a new perspective on it: that we don’t always reap in kind or by the same measure. Hosea 8:7 tells us: For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. (ESV) That certainly fits with the farming analogy, since a great bounty can be gained by just a few seeds. Something Christ points out regarding fruit from sowing the seed of the Word in good soil which produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty (Matt 13:8 ESV).

We’re all farmers, every one of us. So let’s be careful what we plant with our words, attitudes, actions, reactions, motives, thoughts and the like. Because the harvest will be bountiful.

Just something that’s making me more mindful of my choices along the way.