Plowing the Ground of Life
By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.
© July 30, 2010
www.godsbreath.net
Copies
of this and other homilies available by sending requests to: mikefarrar@aol.com
Genesis
3:17-19
“To Adam
he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about
which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' ‘Cursed is the ground because
of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It
will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the
field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the
ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will
return.”
This passage in Genesis describes a portion of the
judgment that was placed on mankind for the rebellious sin that took place in
the Garden of Eden. We live under the consequences of Adam and Eve’s
disobedient decision every day. We must work and toil for a living in order to
survive. The work each of us does to earn a living differs in many ways. Some
of us work in an office and some of us work outside. Some of us work using our
intellect and others of us work using our physical abilities. No matter what
sort of work we do, there are always difficult situations or conflicts we face
because we live in an imperfect world.
Some of us battle with stress or physical
exhaustion in our jobs. Others of us battle financial budgets as the economy
struggles or as business declines. Still others of us battle relationships at
work as we deal with employers, employees and coworkers, not to mention
customers or clients. The common denominator is that because of sin in the
world we face situations in our professions that test and try our soul as well
as our faith in God.
My father told me a story once about how he had
asked his father what the most difficult job was that he had ever had. My
grandfather told him that it was using a young team of mules to break the
ground of a field in preparation for planting of a crop. My dad said he was a
little confused about why this would be a difficult job because the mules in
essence did all the work. All you had to do was just hold the plow and let the
mules pull the plow through the hard ground. But then as my dad thought about
it, he discovered two hardships that arose when attempting this job.
First, young mules were often ornery and
rebellious. Plowing a field with young rebellious mules could be a challenge.
You would spend a lot of time and effort trying to guide the mules in a
straight line so that the field could be properly plowed. This took strength;
determination and character to hang in there and constantly guide these strong
mules in the path that they should go.
The jobs we have drain us to the bone at times. We
reach our homes in the evening exhausted, worn out and often completely
depleted of all energy and creativity. In a sense, as we “plow the ground of
life” in our jobs in order to make a living, we have the consistent difficult
task of maintaining our Christian work ethic and positive godly attitude. We
are called by God to glorify Him in all we do and the workplace is no
different. We are to love our coworkers, minister to our bosses, respect our
employees and maintain this Christ-like behavior all the while we deal with
approaching deadlines, expectations of our customers and clients, budgetary
cutbacks and our own human limitations. So “plowing the ground of life” is a
tough road to walk, or run in some cases. But there is yet one more difficulty
my grandfather faced in this task of plowing the field with these young mules.
It was a hardship that most of us would never think of unless we too had stood
behind a plow pulled by two rebellious mules.
The
second difficulty my grandfather faced in this job was the fact that as the
iron plow would pull through the ground and gouge out a deep furrow overturning
the rich black earth, every once in awhile it would encounter a large tree
root. The problem with this was the fact that as the plow would strain against
this obstruction, eventually the root would break sharply and snap back and hit
my grandfather in the shins. This unexpected pain was torture, for it was like
getting hit with a hard stick over and over again in this very tender part of
the lower leg. The pain was horrible and the fact that you had only seconds to
prepare for the strike made the anticipation of the injury almost unbearable. I
can imagine struggling to keep these powerful young mules in line when all of a
sudden you notice a slight drag on the plow. You hope it’s just a rock but as
soon as you think this, you feel a sharp bolt of pain shoot up from your shins
as the tree root flies back with deadly accuracy to the same spot the last root
had hit on your lower leg. I’m sure my grandfather often came back from the
fields with bruised and sometimes bloodied shins.
Believe
it or not, this description of getting hit unexpectedly in the shins resembles
some of our experiences in our work or career. We toil, struggle and strive to
do our best at the job we have and then on top of this someone shouts angry
insults at us, gossips about us, lies to us, steals from us or in one way or
another hits us in our emotional shins. These unexpected and unfair strikes at
our reputation, abilities and/or emotions are hard to take. Life at work is
hard enough without receiving unfair attacks and comments on top of it. I’m not
saying that any one of us doesn’t need correcting at times or that our skills
and performance shouldn’t be evaluated in a work situation. I’m talking about
those selfish and sinful acts of the flesh that often manifest themselves in
the workplace when our co-workers, employees, managers or bosses injure us with
their words or actions.
Rarely can we influence the random stress
of events and situations that take place at work and usually we have no control
over those people we work alongside. But, we do have control over and a
responsibility for, how we react to the demands of our job as well as those
extra hits we take from those around us at work. 1 Thessalonians has a
righteous command we should take to heart.
1
Thessalonians 5:13-15
“Live
in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle,
encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that
nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and
to everyone else.”
Here we are commanded to live at peace with
everyone. We are to warn, encourage, help and be patient with EVERYONE! We are
to make sure that we don’t pay back wrong with wrong, but INSTEAD strive to be
kind to EVERYONE!
This is a tough instruction to obey, if
not impossible, unless we are relying upon our Lord to fill us with the Holy
Spirit and guide us in how we think and act. Instruction from God’s Word will
give us the path to follow. It is up to us, with the Lord’s help, to walk this
path daily at work.
Proverbs
is a wealth of wisdom and it addresses our needs for how to behave and act at
work when we deal with the stress of work and the injuries that can be
inflicted upon us. Listen to what
Proverbs 12 has to say and I’ll throw in my two cents worth after each verse.
20: “There is deceit in
the hearts of those who plot evil, but joy for those who promote peace.”
If
we promote peace in the workplace we will have joy. We will have joy because we
will not be motivated by deceit to plot evil. Jesus is our example for
promoting peace in our job.
21: “No
harm befalls the righteous, but the wicked have their fill of trouble.”
If we strive to be righteous in our actions at
work we will avoid much trouble. Those who have wicked intentions in the
workplace will have their lives full of trouble.
22:
“The Lord detests lying lips, but
he delights in men who are truthful.”
God delights when we tell the truth to our
employers, managers and coworkers but He hates those who lie about their work
or about those they work with.
23: “A
prudent man keeps his knowledge to himself, but the heart of fools blurts out
folly.
A prudent man or woman has care and concern for
the future so will guard the knowledge they have and not blurt out information
that can harm relationships. Fools spout out all sorts of private and personal
information without regard for others or concern about whether the information
is true of false.
24:
“Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor.”
Christians are called to a diligent work ethic
and if they work in this manner they will be rewarded with greater
responsibilities and even privileges. Those who are lazy will reap what they
sow and will toil for less reward and honor.
Working for a living is a necessity and it is
often very hard because of the sin that is prevalent in the world. It is made
even more difficult when we have to work with sinful people and this includes
us, for sinful people will often let the flesh rule their speech and actions.
If we seek to live by the Spirit instead of the flesh, be humble before God,
follow His ways and be quick to forgive others who injure us, our work and life
will be pleasing to the Lord. Hang in there at work. Accept the challenges.
Look at your co-workers, managers, employees and employers with the eyes of
Jesus. You’ll make it through each workday and honor God in the process.
Proverbs
16:7-9
“When a
man's ways are pleasing to the Lord,
he makes even his enemies live at peace with him. Better a little with
righteousness than much gain with injustice. In his heart a man plans
his course, but the Lord determines
his steps.”