Dear Trekker,
Fall season conjures up such warm memories for this Indiana boy! Endless falling leaves, bonfires, football games, marching bands, beautiful mums, cool evenings and crisp mornings, fresh apple cider, pumpkins, trips to Brown County and the Fall Classic, this year known as Rocktober. My memory reaps the reward of harvested youth! What a man sows, he surely does reap!
It has always been a mystery to me why poets have associated harvest time with melancholy. Yes, the heat of summer is gone, but who can survive it? And who wants the severe chill of winter to set in? Like many things in life, attitude is key when it comes to assessing harvest time.
One thing is certain… the fall season is inevitable. The planting of spring and the growth of summer must be harvested in the fall, for the yield not harvested becomes waste. Such harvesting leads to a time of giving thanks and rejoicing as the storehouses become full for the long winter ahead. One of my favorite fall scriptures is Paul’s comment in his first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 3: “I planted the seed. Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”
Inevitable growth produces a maturation which necessitates a harvest. A harvest must be reaped as surely as it is planted! So we are to pray, according to Saint Matthew, that the Lord of the harvest will send out workers into His harvest field since the harvest is so plentiful but the workers are so few!
This rich metaphor taken from the harvest season speaks of God’s gathering of His earthy children into His forever, heavenly Kingdom. It crystallizes the purpose of harvest, our required role in it, and the glorious climax of the .gathering in.. This autumn (writing from Heidelberg, Germany while on mission assignment) my thoughts daily turn to workers in the field. So many have prayed and given so that the Lord of the harvest might send youth workers. What an opportunity to participate with the Lord and young workers harvesting in the field!
For the gleaning to be successful and capture the joy and rejoicing intended, I have in recent weeks been gripped with a truth I believe we must practice if the essence of harvest is to be ours. Quite simply, it is demonstrating to young leaders that we do ministry as friends. We rejoice together, we pray together; we play together… always, always as friends. We must cooperate in ministry, never compete. We must collaborate, never castigate or parse each other’s efforts to gather the harvest. We harvest as friends. Ministry is harvested friendships!
I am relearning again, leading a rather large team of young people reaching out to US military teens across Europe, that our American individualism unwittingly has sown a whirlwind of misunderstanding and isolation and loneliness which is devastating to “laborers in the field.” Instead of rejoicing and working as friends, it is easy to mistrust one another, as “hired hands” are prone to do. Non-acceptance of personal responsibility, sloppy execution, and sacrificed integrity often lurk at the door, a companion of diminished espirit and low morale.
The Lord of the harvest gave us a wonderful recipe for gathering in the harvest and enjoying doing so. He said in essence, “You are my friends, now go out as friends and gather in the harvest.” The Apostle John quotes Jesus: “You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you ‘friends’, for everything I have learned from my Father, I have made known to you. You didn’t choose me, but I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.”
This concept of friendship has captured me this fall! So much of the hubris of life is blown away or plowed under when we see our co-workers as friends. No one-upmanship, only grace and peace and encouragement define who we are chosen to be, by and for the Lord of the harvest. We are to be soul friends, speaking into the life of one another the words of the Spirit. Soul talk if you will!
In youth ministry, we talk much about “contact work.” It is winning the right to be heard by a teenager, becoming his or her friend and walking in wisdom and love with those seeking truth and answers to life. Contact work is simply interested and encouraging conversation, desiring to relate as a friend! When friendships form, vulnerabilities are lanced and hopes and dreams are sown in accountability.
All this is true because the routines and rhythms of life are successfully lived out only in relationship. The triune God is by nature relational, and He wants us to be His friends, and for us to be friends with one another. So, whatever we do, we do heartily (as friends) unto the Lord. Friends are “insiders”; hired hands see only a paycheck. Hired hands flee; friends, never!
You know, kids can teach us a lot! Coming full circle and folding these thoughts into the harvest mix, I read recently these words from a fifth grader: “Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin. God picks you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff. Then He carves you a new, smiley face and puts His light inside you for all the world to see what He’s done.” Yes, it all starts with each of us becoming a friend of Jesus, His workmanship.
Trekkers, may we as friends continue to climb “Harvest Mountain” together. There is a lot of work yet to be done. But let’s enjoy the climb. Let’s cast aside criticism and cynicism, knowing we are called to friendship; and when we reach the summit, we’ll “pop the champagne” and sit down for the feast together!
Go Rockies, keep playing as friends,
Jim Meredith
