16 June 2014

Building races

As believers we are already looked upon with pleasure by our Lord. So do your work to him. He will never leave you disillusioned and bitter, for in Him is always great depths of joy. If your strength is spent merely working for men, or to please men, your joy will never persist. It simply cannot. We were created for the Glory of God, and working for that as foremost, even in the most simple mundane of our days will bring us deep joy, pleasure, and satisfaction where we otherwise would eventually be overcome by the realization of futility, bitterness, disillusion, and a wasting of our years.
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up.  Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44)


Recently as we were building races here on the farm it was a great to be reminded of that. 



  I saw a man running this roller for days on end, and thought to myself..."I would go absolutely nuts driving that thing."   As God would have it, about 3 days later the owner called me up at noon and asked me if I would be willing to drive it for the afternoon.  I was, and drove it for the afternoon.  It was actually an enjoyable afternoon. A long conversation with with family back home that called on Skype, and lots of Piper.    

With the vibrating/pounding feature, I was very thankful for my noise cancelation earphones.

I was shocked to see them dumping both trailers sometimes on the go! I thought for sure the back trailer was going over when it hit the dirt from the first trailer.

They work very hard to get an 8 degree camber to the road.  It is a real art form.
And yet at the end of the day, the lanes will be trashed by rain and cows, and need continual maintenance to not cause more harm than help.  And for what?  So cows can make milk? Excellent food for people.  Sure, but how many of them thank the farmer for his work, and even if they did what is that? Fickle praise? Do we not more often feel the burden of greater regulation and red tape to deal with from many of the very people we work to feed... Vanity, vanity, a chasing after the wind.  If I seem cynical, I am not.  But it is true.  In the end we die, and if what we have worked for, and if the aim of all our work was anything less than that God would be glorified, and pleased, unless we have acknowledged that our very strength and skill to work, play, love, and strive for these things has come as a gracious gift from God our Almighty father, and his Holy Spirit at work within us, it is vanity.  All for dust.  If our aim, our strivings, are not rather that people would see Jesus as precious, then it is all vain dust blowing in our eyes. Why not rather sell your life, your dreams?  Why not rather risk your "security" your "future?"  Why not rather leave all that you hold dear in this world?  If to gain Jesus, than I say YES!!! YES!!!!YES!!!!  He is more than worth it all!!!  In Mark 8 verses 34 and 35,  Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. but in losing our lives for his sake, we will save them. And two chapters later he says that to lose all for his sake will mean to gain 100 fold in this world, and persecution, and in the age to come eternal life.  It is truly gaining life. So we do these things, and we take pleasure in them for the Glory of God, or we pursue that which is vanity, a chasing after the wind.  
"If we consider the unblushing promises of reward ... promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.  We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea.  We are far too easily pleased."
-C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

And this pursuit of the great pleasure of God, is where we will find our great satisfaction.  In the end the only way to escape this vanity, and chasing after the wind is to Seek first the Jesus/the Kingdom of Heaven, then all these things will be added unto us, because He is first, and all the rest brings us to enjoy Him even more.

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