This week enjoy a change from our usual liturgical pattern and instead reflect on a daily essay on devotional life.
Agriculture Vs. Manufacturing by Pastor Jeff Cloeter
We live in a world of manufacturing. It relies on control, production, manipulation. You take resources, and think little of replenishing them. It’s about prediction, optimization, and return on investment. We build machines and mechanisms to be efficient and data-driven.
In Scripture, agriculture is the dominant language. Seed and soil. Field and fruit. Vine and branches.
We prefer manufacturing because we can force and impose. Agriculture deals with conditions beyond our control. Temperature, precipitation, seasons are all beyond us. Manufacturing attempts to minimize risk. Agriculture is wrought with the risk of drought and infestation.
Manufacturing prizes the immediate. We want results and fast. Schedules and deadlines drive the work. Agriculture does not operate within our timeframe. It requires patience. Sometimes fruit comes quickly, and sometimes growth is slow.
Most of all, manufacturing attempts to avoid excessive work and pain. Agriculture embraces death and sacrifice. Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24).
Miracle over machinery. Trust over control. Patience more than urgency. Roots hidden under the soil are more important than superficial flash above the surface.
The life of faith is more agriculture than manufacturing. It is the cycle of receiving and responding. God gives, we reply. How are you receiving? How will you respond?
“Convenience decides everything,” said Twitter co-founder Evan Williams. Modern man is fixated on doing things faster, cheaper, easier, and more efficiently. JRR Tolkien once warned, “Short cuts make long delays.”
We live in an instant society. By comparison with most of human history, today’s travel, communication, and access to information are lightning in speed. We are left spoiled by immediacy. We’re frustrated with lines. We’re annoyed when things take a long time. This is a problem for Christian discipleship.
Christians are those who devote themselves to the call of Jesus, “Follow me.” But to follow Jesus is neither convenient nor quick. Eugene Peterson calls it “a long obedience in the same direction.” Like an apprentice, you devote yourself to your Master. You follow and learn over a long period of time.
Life in an instant society has produced a “Christianity of convenience.” Follow Jesus on your own terms. Fit him neatly into your pocket or your calendar. Make your faith work for you. When Christianity gets hard or makes unpleasant demands, find an easier way.
Convenient Christianity doesn’t have the patience to follow after Jesus. It’s in a hurry to find short cuts. Self-help preachers peddle Christian life hacks to make the journey more appealing to an ever impatient clientele.
“How can we do this Jesus thing easily?” But Jesus said, “The road is hard and the way is narrow” (Matt. 7:14).
“How does faith fit into my schedule?” Jesus says, “No, how does your schedule fit into my time?”
“How can I fit Jesus into everything else I have going on in my life?” Jesus says, “No, how do you fit into everything I’m doing?”
Jesus tells us that inconvenient things that take time and sacrifice. Like this: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matt. 16:24) Set yourself aside. Pick up an instrument of suffering. Lose everything to follow the Nazarene carpenter. This is not the catchy slogan that we expect would compel millions of followers.
Nonetheless, billions of people have journeyed this inconvenient road of Christian discipleship. We do so because of the Person who called us to “follow him.” He himself walked an inconvenient road, setting aside comfort, security, and power. He denied himself, took up his cross, and lost his life. When someone willfully chooses the road of suffering for the sake of others, we sit up and pay attention. We even join Him along the way.
Convenience is not inherently evil, nor is inconvenience inherently a virtue. But our greatest virtues are only acquired in the school of inconvenient experience. Life’s long and weary challenges teach us our limits of time and ability. Slow and laborious circumstances confront us with our frailty and urge us to faith. Here we learn the necessary skills of the Christian life.
Patience.
Perseverance.
Devotion.
Sacrifice.
Self-control.
Love.
Forbearance.
Such virtues cannot be learned in a hurry, nor can they be expressed in haste.