The Great Spiritual Harvest: Galatians 6:6-10
The spiritual harvest is worth the effort. It can be hard. People don’t always listen. People have free will and sometimes choose contrary to what God wants for them. Even so, it is still worthwhile. Watching the Spirit grow in one another is one of the most fulfilling things we can ever participate in.
We reap what we sow. There are so many layers of truth in this statement. Someone who is constantly angry at the world will likely spend a lifetime dealing anger reflected back at them. Someone who is loving will likely spend a lifetime feeling love reflected back. This is painting with a broad stereotypical brush. Angry people will occasionally feel love and kind people will occasionally feel anger. Normally, though, we reap what we sow.
The same is true about spirituality. People who take time to sow spirituality into the lives of others often find spirituality coming back their way. We may not reap spirituality from the same people into whom we sowed, but it does come back. I may never see the full harvest of spiritual conversations I have with the freshmen and sophomores I teach, but I reap harvests from freshmen and sophomores who had middle school or elementary teachers sow into them. We reap what we sow; we don’t always reap from the field into which we’ve sown.
For the record – since I do have some of my students reading this blog – I do sometimes reap spirituality from the same fields God has me sow. I especially love these moments. I love the conversations. I love having several years after teaching to watch spirituality blossom return to past conversations as we meet in the hallway or share a lunch together.
When we sow spirituality, we are sowing into eternity. There is a temporal harvest watching the other person grow, but there is also a greater eternal harvest. There will be a day and a time when we spend eternity with each other. I can’t wait to hear stories about how God spoke through my community to increase faith in someone and help them reach the calling God had for them. I can’t wait to sit in heaven and revel in how God worked through people around me to impact the world for Jesus Christ. Imagine having an eternity to listen to how God knitted people together into one enormous tapestry of faithfulness.
There is still an even greater perspective. I cannot wait to stand before my God, knowing I deserve judgment, yet hear Him pronounce me forgiven and then say “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into my joy.” That will be the greatest harvest because it comes from the Lord. That is why we do not grow weary doing good. One day, my God will say those words over me and people like me whom He’s woven into a tapestry of faith. That will be the beginning of my all-time favorite day. The spiritual harvest is worth the effort.
