A Tale Of Two Farmers

My brother wrote this blog recently and I received permission to re-post this story here. It's a great analogy...

There was a man. He was an normal average everyday man. This man, however, had a passion. His passion was to be a farmer. He wanted to be one since he was a toddler and sat on his grandpas knee as he drove the combine across the fields. Because life is life, however, this man grew up and became a banker. He was never really happy with being a banker but he had gone to school for it and was competent. He had friends, a family. He had a good life. However, this passion that he had deep within him continued to nag at him.

One day, after many years of banking he finally had enough. With much discussion with his family he left all that he knew in the banking world and bought a farm. Now this man didn't know a lot about farming but his passion drove him to learn all there was. His passion made him a sponge and he just absorbed it all. He cared for his land, really loving the feel of the earth between his fingers and the premorning chill that woke him up as he fed his cattle and gathered the eggs. He worked long hours, had to change his lifestyle habits in order to afford his farm.

At first his family went along with dads crazy scheme, but eventually his passion became instilled into them and they learned the land and became proud of what their hands grew. It wasn't the most productive farm but it held its own. More importantly, it allowed this man to live his passion. It brought his family together. His children grew to have a passion and they brought new ideas and technique to the farm, eventually taking over the farm from their father. The farm grew and became known as having the best crop in the district and they became prosperous. It was good.

Now, this man had a neighbor. They had the same land quality and size. It was run by a man whose dad was a farmer and whose dad was a farmer. He didn't know what else to do. This man didn't like the chill of the premorning as he got up to do his chores, wishing instead to be in his warm bed. He didn't work longer then he had to during the day. He bought the things of convenience that would make his crop grow faster and better, without understanding what it would do to his land. He made his family do chores in order to keep the farm going and keep the money coming in. They did not like doing chores just as much as the man didn't like doing chores, and so as soon as they could leave the farm they did.

Over the years his children left, meaning that he had to do more and more of the work. He bought more and more fertilizer and grew more and more cash crop to pay for the mounting bills. One year: nothing. His crop wouldn't grow. His land was dead. The man was alone, abandoned by his family for the pursuit of their own money.

These two men, while both farmers, became focused on different things. One man having to farm, and the other man just on the farm itself. The man whose focus was on the potential lost his love for the farm and it became work for him and in the process he ended up losing it all. The other man left all that he had for a passion and with his passion a knowledge that deepened his passion and was passed along to his family. He loved the land itself and cared for it, while the other man cared for what the land could do for him and he lost it all.

In this same way have we become focused on the relationship to the point that we forget to have a relationship. I am not saying that the ways that we have relationship with God are wrong. But are we going to church, volunteering, praying etc, in order to have a relationship or are we doing those things as an outpouring of our relationship?

Bruxy Cavey has a line in his book "The End Of Religion" that I want to leave you with. "Do I kiss my wife to earn her love? Or do I kiss my wife to express the love that we already share?" Do we do all the things we do in His name because we will have a relationship with Him by doing those things, or do we do those things because of a natural out pouring from our relationship with Him which compels us to those things?