The Farm As An Object Lesson

Last Sunday was a whirlwind of craziness as I rushed to pack for vacation, take the dog out to the dog sitter in the suburbs, get the van loaded, get the children loaded in the van, and attend church before heading out for our vacation.   Yeah, we went to church before vacation.  My husband is weird about skipping church.  In the time that we've been together (9 years) we've only missed church a handful of times due to illness or travel...my personal attendance might have been a little spottier if it weren't for him.  Anyway, it ended up being a timely sermon.  It was a sermon about work. 

This sermon was particularly pertinent because we actually do a farm stay for vacation (I call it Hay-cation).  My husband and I take our kids to a real working ranch in Central Missouri.  The owners of the ranch are a husband and wife who spent most of their adult lives as missionaries to Africa.  They are very patient teachers who delight in imparting the ways of the farm to us, the urban vacationers.  This year, in addition to learning the ropes of farm work, we learned about how to prepare a pasture, how to select traits for breeding cattle, how to use physics to mend fences, and how a diversity of animals can use the land to it's fullest potential.  Above all, it is a HANDS ON learning experience.   

A basic rundown of the farm stay goes like this:

7:00am- chores (bottle feed calf, feed weaned calves, move the herd)
8:00am-breakfast
9:00am-more farm work (set fence for tomorrow, break down chicken wagons, mend fences, cultivate the garden, etc)
12:00-lunch
12:00-4:00pm- time to do berry picking, fishing, resting, reading, etc.
4:00pm-short evening chores (feed goats, gather eggs, bottle feed calf)
The rest of the evening is ours to use to make and eat dinner, hang out, play games, pet the calf and goats, and other such things.  There is no television. 

We go on vacation and work.  That may seem strange to some of you.  But it really IS very relaxing and fulfilling for me to go on this farm stay.  When we come home I feel connected to the land, connected to the greater good of food production, connection to my agrarian ancestors, and connection to God and His creation.  I come home ready to turn my whole yard into a tiny farm.  I love it and I plan to go again next year. 

What made this Hay-cation even more meaningful were the words of my pastor's work sermon bouncing around in my head as I worked this week.  On Sunday he shared with us that people are created to have a need to work.  Our need to be productive and useful is innate...it is holy and right.  In Genesis we see that Adam was working before sin entered the picture.  He was entrusted to care for the garden.  And he did. 

I felt the joy of that reality on the first day of our farm stay.  Everything went the way our host planned and the work was fulfilling and enjoyable.  The weather was pleasantly mild.  Most of the morning was spent breathing in the freshness of the farm and soaking in the simple beauty of a small ranch in the Ozarks.  It was during this morning that I realized that it's easier to delight in work when you have no stake in the outcome.  We were there for 4 days.  The fortune of the herd had very little to do with the small chores we were doing.  It must have been that way for my First Father.  Just working and cherishing all that surrounded him.  He didn't have to worry about the abundance of the crop...it would come and he could trust that. 

The Hebrew word for work that is used in the passage in Genesis means service or worship.  So not only was Adam working, but the very act of his work was worship to God.  There was no separation between work and play...no disconnect between Sunday and Monday. 

Our second day on the farm solidified that for me.  We woke up to a beautiful misty morning.  Chores went smoothly.  After lunch we went blueberry picking.  Being so close to nature and literally harvesting my food was cause for worship.  I loved every sweltering moment of this venture (well, except the few where I had to holler at my sons to stop throwing blueberries at each other).  Half jokingly, I told my husband that I hope that one of my jobs in heaven is picking blueberries! 

But, as my pastor said...that blissful work as worship relationship only lasted for two pages.  Two pages later the humans decided that God wasn't trustworthy and broke His only rule.  They were punished.  The punishment...well one of them... was that work suddenly turned into sweaty, futile, toil.  Work is hard as a consequence of sin.  Instead of the ground yielding, it took blood, sweat, and tears to make the ground produce food. 

Oh, that third day, did I feel the weight of that!!! A little while before we came to the ranch, their creek had flooded it's banks and washed out a section of fence.  When I say "washed out", I mean the water, rocks, and plants knocked down, twisted up, and entangled this barbed wire fence.  We worked HARD for most of the morning and only managed to sort of untangle the wires.  It was a huge mess.  I was sweating buckets.  My poor thigh muscles screamed as I had to crouch for several hours to loosen clips from posts.  The muscles of my abs and shoulders strained to free posts from both soil and masses of long, woven stands of hay.  I had to work until lunch time.  It needed to be done and there was not an option of quitting.  I gritted my teeth and worked as hard as I could waiting expectantly for the moment when I could quit working!

That feeling I had on the third day on the ranch was how work feels most of the time for most of us.  If you don't like your work, it is a grind.  It is mind numbingly boring.  It is grit your teeth and work until you can quit and pick up your paycheck and go on with life.  It isn't a whole lot rosier even if you are fortunate enough to love your work.  Then it becomes about throwing yourself into it, often to the detriment of all else.  It is obsessing.  It is thinking of yourself and how you can get promoted or move up.  It becomes what defines you. 

When I look at work in terms of the first few days at the ranch, I can see that, when I just work for the joy of working and worshipping, I am free.  I am free to enjoy the sights and sounds of a beautiful country morning.  I am free to take pleasure in working the soil in the garden and leading cattle to new pasture.  I am free to relax and trust that plants will grow and cattle will stay healthy.  I am free to stop what I am doing and lend a hand to the other workers around me...or to pick up a chore without being told to. 

When I come back to my world, my normal work, the challenge becomes translating that experience into my every day.  How can I trust God to make my work fruitful without obsessing about it?  How can I labor without using my role to create my identity (mother/homemaker/substitute teacher)?  How can I understand how my odd little medley of gifts are able to serve others and glorify to God?  How can I live in the freedom that allows me to prize the beauty and wonder around me without being lazy?  How can I, in the midst of hard, nasty work, understand the importance of that work and keep going?  How can I monotonously wipe another counter/bottom/table/nose/spill while looking ahead to a time when work is redeemed and returned to the way it was created?

It's something I'll probably struggle against for the rest of my life.  Thanks to God, I can hope that one day I will be given a job to do in His city...an enterprise I can adore...work that is worship... labor without frustration...wonder filled pursuits free from futility .