WHEN THE LAND IS SCORCHED BELOW US.

I’m from Kansas, and though I didn’t grow up on a farm, I saw the passing of the seasons in the fields all around our home.

Burning

I was always amazed at the farmers, planting seed, cultivating soil, praying for rain. The trust that was required always inspired me. My favorite was the time when ranchers would burn their fields - literally set ribbons of flame ablaze to run wild - killing off the dead tallgrass to allow new growth to sprout. But before the sprouting, it looked like the moon: dead and lunar, black with white rock. What new growth could come out of a place like that?

And yet, it always did. And the sunsets when the smoke filled the air was like none other, bright red and hot pink.

When ministry feels like pruning

Ministry is a lot like this. Life is. Seasons meant to prepare us for new growth almost kill us.

But what a tragedy if we saw this season as one unto itself. What if we blamed the Farmer -

And yet, He knows purifying fire must come to burn off the old to make way for the new that - please, Jesus, I pray - IS coming. We can have eternal perspective. And the new that’s coming may not be in changed circumstance, it may just be more of Himself. “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.” James 5:7-8