“So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 (NRSV)

The trail of tobacco leaves along the route of my drive home this afternoon reminded me the harvest continues.  When I was a child, practically all farmers had finished before now and, as I have heard many farmers say, “You had to be because your workers (children) were heading back to school.”  Yes, at one time, family, friends, and neighbors looked after each other and helped with getting the green leaf into the barn and eventually off to the warehouse.  Times have certainly changed, and, if my granddaddy was still alive and farming, he would have a FIT over those aforementioned leaves along the roadway.

A few weeks ago, I heard a local farmer remark, “This has been an unusual year.”  When you think about it, we have had a little bit of everything weather wise: dry conditions, flooding rains, and a touch of wind tossed in for “good measure.”  Unpredictable, trusting, not to mention exhausting is the life of a farmer.  As I have heard a number of times before, “Farming is one of the greatest acts of faith out there.”  Talk to a seasoned farmer or even a younger one continuing his/her family tradition, and you will find a man or woman who is passionate, strong, and committed to bringing forth something regardless of the conditions.  Yes, 2024 has proven to be “an unusual year,” but our farmers are driven to make the best/most out of a difficult situation.

I say all of this in light of my recent series of sermons on the “Fruit of the Spirit.”  As with this year’s springtime planting in Eastern North Carolina, we find that God’s good fruit comes to maturity even when the conditions may not be ideal/easy.  After all, who amongst us has what we might call “the perfect life?”  Not one.  Our lives can be somewhat like this summer.  We go through periods of spiritual dryness.  Sometimes, we feel like we are up to our necks in the rising “waters” of stress.  The winds of change stir about us leaving us wondering what the future may have in store.  In spite of the imperfections of our lives, God continues to do a good work in each of us and, as Paul states in Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion.”  The key is not becoming weary.

In the spring, farmers set out with an eventual harvest in mind.  They know it will not come overnight and there will be plenty of unexpected variables which impact the growing season.   The same might be said of our “fruit production” as Christians.  We begin a relationship with God through our profession of faith and then we wait for maturity in Christ to take place through the Holy Spirit.  Such development occurs through the highs and lows of life with each moment forming our faith in some fashion.  Some days may feel more conducive to spiritual growth while others leave us feeling dry or drowning.  However, even in the unideal times and places, when we might be tempted to think God is not doing anything to grow us, the opposite is actually true.  It is in such moments that I try to encourage others not to base a relationship with God solely upon feelings.

As I resume writing the next day, a trailer overflowing with tobacco leaves and a truck loaded with bins of sweet potatoes roll past my office.  Once again, I am reminded it is harvest time.  It is not planting season nor is it tillage season.  It is time for all of the hard work, all of the money invested months ago, and all of the patience shown to pay off.  In Paul’s correspondence with the Galatians, he states we will reap at “harvest time” and not any sooner.  In Scripture and theological discussions, there are two different understandings of time.  There is the more common one known as chronos which is the term from which we have developed our English word “chronology.”  When we think of chronology, we are referring to calendar dates and clock timing by which we order events in our lives.  The other term is kairos which is not focused upon the details of dates and times.  Instead, kairos considers the special timing of events.  For example, in Galatians 4:4, Paul states that “when the timing was right, God sent Jesus…”

For us as Christians, God develops the “Fruit of the Spirit” in God’s timing.  We cannot circle a day on a calendar or create an event in our cellphones for when this will happen.  It cannot be forced or hurried along just as a mature plant cannot be pulled out of a freshly sown seed.  It will come no doubt about it, but we must not give up.  Imagine if a farmer sowed beans or cotton in the spring and decided by August to run a disc through the fields because he or she was tired of waiting.  What if a farmer chose to pull up green stalks of wheat and take them to the market?  We would view both farmers as being foolish for not waiting or trying to harvest too quickly.  Harvest comes when the harvest is ready.  The same is true of our production of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, faithfulness, and gentleness.  It IS going to grow.  It IS going to flourish.  It WILL produce a harvest, but we cannot act or lose heart too quickly.

Together in Christian Growth,

The Reverend Kelley Smart