The Farmer’s Worldview

POD #11: The Farmer’s Worldview

I have a motto, “The only thing constant is change.”  Not that change is always easy, but endings are normal.  That doesn’t mean endings are not painful but they are usually necessary. Endings open the door for new beginnings.

There is a commitment I know that I need to end – it is over committing myself.  I have a pretty structured schedule, but because of it, I am often double booking things, and sometimes triple booking things.  Then I feel rushed, stressed, or like I’ve let someone down when I have to rearrange things.  I am left longing for true down time that requires nothing of me.

I am the farmer that loves to plant seeds and reap the harvest.  I love to scatter them, but really I don’t like the ground preparation, the pruning and watering required to get to the harvest.  Depending on the project, I can successfully do this – I get it started with fervent effort.  Then I find myself disinterested in whatever the project it.  Then I want to jump back in at the end and reap the harvest.

For me to really stick with the middle part, I have to  be super passionate about it, or it needs to be short-term and I be very goal driven for a purpose.  Learning to say “no” to things that I am going to fizzle out of during the middle is where my life is headed.  I don’t want to spend my self of good activities, I want to invest my life in what God has for me to do I want to stop taking on activities because I can do what is being asked of me, and truly pour my life in to what matters to God.

I have already been doing a life inventory of what is important and what I feel like God is directing me towards.  It has had much fine tuning over the past few years, and a few things really stand out as to what my focus needs to be.  Right now it is narrowed down to

1. God
2. My family – husband, children, grandchildren, and extended family

These two are in a nonnegotiable order.

1. Relationships – building, maintaining and strengthening
2. Helping women – strengthening, encouraging, guiding
3. Building up other believers – helping others see who they are in Christ, develop a deeper personal relationship with Christ, and connect with their purpose in the body of Christ
4. Self-care – taking care of my body and soul (As my spirit will be strengthened through #1)

These four, I realistically know, at times one will take priority over another just due to deadlines, planned activities, and needs.

Lately, before I say yes to anything, I ask myself of the thing fits in to any of the above six categories.  If not I will try to find someone who could do the activity as well or better than I could and connect them with it.  I feel like in connecting someone else I am not only working on number 3 but also on number 4 as well.  Not that there aren’t times that I won’t take on another activity that fits in these categories, but I’m trying.

It is easier said than done, because I like being helpful.  I also know that if God has given me the ability I like to use it.  And although I really don’t like to admit it, I like the ability to do things that don’t come naturally to others.  I just realize that just because I can do it, doesn’t mean I should be the one doing it.  Letting go of that control is a challenge for me.

Yet, allowing myself to stop over commitment to activities that I was never supposed to be a part of, or that God has told me it is time to end will open the door to future blessing and miracles.  I look back at my life and he change that has been made in the last three years and I am amazed at the transformation in my life.  The farmer’s worldview sees that everything has it’s time, and allows me to do what I need to do in each season to reap the harvest that God wants in my life.

Endings open my life up to new growth and new beginnings.  Fresh possibilities of dreams that I have yet to dream are awaiting.  There is a life buried just beneath the surface ready to be discovered as old seeds die, and new seedlings sprout forth with creative ideas, fresh relationships, and deeper roots.