Beyond Hope

When a farmer, or any kind of sower really, plants a seed – conceals in dirt the hard, dead pod of potential – he not only hopes it will produce a crop, he expects a harvest.

If the soil is good, and the weeds are cleared…

If the sun shines just right and the rain comes in perfect batches…

If he has faith to let God do the rest…

The sower can reasonably expect a harvest, and an abundant one at that.

I talk a lot about hope here on Dry Ground. It’s essential to living. Losing hope leads to losing life. Sometimes hope is the only light we have.

Although we wait for that which our hope spurs us toward, my question is…

Do we expect the harvest?

What good does it do a farmer if he did all the work of sowing but lacks expectation that anything would grow?

For those of us who wait… for anything… whether it’s been minutes or years… if you’ve planted that seed of hope…

And you’ve kept faith in the One who holds you…

And you’ve planted in good soil and tended the seed…

Then you can expect a harvest.

I’ll admit, I get hung up on hope.

That’s not meant to sound counter-productive or contradictory.

But I’m sometimes like a farmer that pours all sweat and muscle into planting, and then walks around every day merely hoping something will happen. I even leave the field occasionally, untended and ignored, because I don’t see evidence of growth.

I get to the point that I actually fear asking God for the harvest.

And that just shouldn’t be.

I marvel at King David when I read the Psalms. He gets demanding in some of them (read Ps. 44, for example!), in God’s face, actually reminding Him of His promises and character.

No, God doesn’t need reminded. We do. But isn’t it wonderful that we can have that conversation with the Creator of the Universe at all?

I think what David shows us here is how to expect the harvest.

Plant an apple seed, and it stands to reason you will get an apple tree and eventually an apple.

Sometimes we make the mistake of expecting an orange, and get disappointed when we get the apple.

Other times, and more often in my case, I expect nothing.

I want to be more like David. He’s so in tuned with his Lord’s character, that he knows what to expect, and like a child, he does, stubbornly and resolutely.

Cool thing is… he received what he expected.

Expect the harvest. It goes beyond hoping. It is knowing.

Thanks for stopping by Dry Ground today!

(photos by photobucket.com)