Maybe you’ve noticed in seed catalogues that one corn can be harvested in less, sometimes nearly half, the time it takes for another to be ready. There are early maturing varieties and late varieties. The most important fact to note is that crops, even the spiritual ones, are not all of one kind. Tonight we’re going to try to understand one universal challenge: How to keep waiting and working when the harvest seems delayed. We’re concerned with that long list of requirements and commandments you already know are essential along the way to eternal life. Tonight we’re talking just about sowing to the Spirit. Remember how Paul said it:īe not deceived God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.įor he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Common sense tells you there is such a law, and so did the Savior and so have the prophets. We’re talking about an application of the law of the harvest. In his letter about the man’s baptism, he said, “I’ve never been more happy in my life.” The Law of the Harvest What he got was to meet one man, behind one of a hundred doors. For what it would cost us, what would we get? We haven’t got a contact, so we’d be just hitting doors.” Well, he went-that’s an odd investment decision, but he went. So, the young man had to decide, “Shall we go out? We’ve been tracting and it’s produced nothing. The mission president authorized them to stay in their apartment because wind brought the effective temperature to 80 degrees below zero. Just living and working with his companion required more contribution than the young missionary had dreamed he was going to have to make. His companion would have made Job’s critical friends seem like the Three Nephites. I heard his story, but there must have been thousands of such choices made last month. There’s a young man in the mission field who’s made that choice in the last month. Does it make sense to keep working, to keep sacrificing, when nothing seems to be coming from the effort? The hardest ones are where the waiting includes working. So, she will never know what might have been ahead on the path she decided wasn’t worth the price she knew quickly the other one was uphill, and a hard climb.Īll of us make decisions every day, almost every hour, about whether it’s worth it to wait. And in a choice about time and about waiting or not waiting, her life changed. She found she had been right about his intentions. ![]() And finally, she repeated to herself, “Oh, what’s the use?” She went. She didn’t say, “Yes.” She said, “I’ll think about it.” She thought about it. But, almost as if directed by a scriptwriter, he called at that instant. She’d refused because she was sure he’d expect her to compromise her standards she’d preserved at great effort. She said to herself almost aloud, “Oh, what’s the use?” She decided that afternoon, consciously, that years of good works and restraint had produced too little and promised no more. In frustration she found herself deciding something. She saw no prospect of even becoming friends with, let alone marrying, a man who shared her faith and ideals. Not so much tired of being kind and virtuous as tired of nothing good seeming to come of it. Tired of trying to be a faithful Latter-day Saint. She said it happened on a summer Saturday afternoon. The details vary, but not the feeling of drama. I remember it not because it was unique but because I have heard the same story told, again and again, about waiting or failing to wait. But I remember a story told to me long ago, far from here, by a sad voice. And even an amateur can tell when the corn or carrots are ready. In your garden, you can tell if the seed sprouts. Waiting for a harvest takes more judgment in life than it does in gardening. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:Ī time to be born, and a time to die a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.Ī time to get, and a time to lose a time to keep, and a time to cast away. He said quietly, more to himself than to me, “Timing is everything.”Įcclesiastes said, with an elegance that goes beyond poetry to frame our problem: Some had waited too long, missing the chance to act. We talked about some tragedies in lives of people we knew. I was riding in a car with a wise man a few years ago. ![]() I’d like to talk with you tonight about those two things: about time. And I appreciate what it means for you to have decided to spend your time with me.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |