The Patience of Farmers
“Look at the farmers. They have to be patient. They have to wait for their valuable crop to grow and produce a harvest. They wait patiently for the first rain and the last rain. You must be patient too. Never stop hoping. The Lord is coming soon.” James 5:7-8
Just out my window and across the pond are empty fields and orchards. All year long, I have watched the plowing and planting. I have watched the pruning of the fruit trees. I have prayed, along with the farmers, for more rain and warmer weather. I have enjoyed seeing the green fields and trees, weighed-down with fruit. I have watched the combines come through and harvest the fields. I have watched the trucks go through with pickers to harvest the bushels and bushels of fruit. Now, the fields are brown and empty, and the barren fruit trees stretch their naked branches to the sky. Everything is being put to bed for the winter. It is the season of rest and planning for next year.
We have these seasons in our lives as well. Springtime is full of hope and activity. Planning, planting, signs of life and growth. So much excitement. Then the heat of summer and the months of waiting. Waiting for plants to grow enough to produce a harvest. Praying for rain. Weeding. Managing pests. Waiting for the fruit to grow big enough to harvest. Praying for more rain. Praying for protection from too much rain, too much weather. Waiting and more waiting. Then the thrill of harvest. Piles of fruits and vegetables. Farmer’s markets, canning, pies, filled freezers. The wait, finally over! And then the quietness of winter. Rest and yearn for signs of spring, for signs of life.
I have the above verse displayed on a wall in my living room where I can frequently look at the words and be reminded of my own need for patience. I desperately need patience as I move through the seasons of my life. I need patience with my kids and my people. For me, this season of life is filled with constant business and work. There is always another story to read, a face to wipe, a mouth to feed, a middle-of-the-night waking to tend. I feel my own impatience with the physical demands of this time. And yet, I am asked to live well in this season of life. In The Practice of the Presence of God, Brother Andrew tells us, “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, Who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.” I pray to be faithful in the little things.
Some days, I grow impatient with myself. I grow frustrated with my own humanity, my own finite–ness. I often push so hard against my season of life. I ache for something different or easier or more exciting. And yet, this is where I am. This season, right here, right now. In Tish Harrison Warren’s book, Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life, she reminds us that “the idea is that we are sanctified – made holy – not in the abstract but through our concrete vocation…We can’t be holy in the abstract. We learn the craft of holiness day by day in the living of a particular life.”
Some days, I grow impatient with my church. I grow impatient of waiting on God to change hearts, to change processes and procedures. I grow weary of personality conflicts and the mark of sin in my own life, as well as the lives of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I am tired of the brokenness. And yet we are told to be patient, to wait for God to do His holy work in His time
frame. Robert Louis Wilkin tells us, “The singular mark of patience is not endurance or fortitude but hope. To be impatient…is to live without hope. Patience is grounded in the Resurrection.” (The Spirit of Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God)
In all of these areas, I see that God is teaching me patience. He is refining me, chipping away my pride and self-reliance. He is in the process of making me holy. I pray I will have patience throughout this process. It sure doesn’t come naturally. I pray that you, too, will grow in patience. Be patient with yourself, just as the Father is patient with you. He has “created (us) in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)
