Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
[Extract from ‘The Mad Farmer Liberation Front‘ by Wendell Berry]
What we work for as success is rarely success. What outlasts us are rarely the things we imagined would. So in all our doing we need a sense of humility, we do not fully know the value of our actions.
Often, when I hear ‘seeds’ and ‘harvest’ (as in the poem above), I’m reminded of Jesus’ words concerning the kingdom of God. That is a crop I did not plant, nor will I harvest it. But, it is the crop of most significance, existing long before my birth and long after my death. I hope I live appropriately with that crop; watching it, learning of it, noting its characteristics and subtleties, tending it, making sure I am not polluting the soil, or trampling on the plants. Hoping my walking is not, me-making-my-mark, crop circles for my own ego, and so damaging the farmers crop.
Forgive me Father, where in ignorance and deliberate fault I have acted in ignorance to the ways of the kingdom.