I’m a city boy. I don’t like to be far from
the creature comforts. The only things that grow around me are asphalt, glass,
and steel. The only green of the city are the weeds pushing up between the
cracks in the sidewalks. Eggs come in Styrofoam containers by the dozens and
milk in sanitized cartons behind frosted glass doors.
An hour drive in any direction and it is a
different story. Buildings turn from skyscrapers to single level storefronts;
multiplex malls turn into mercantile and feed stores. The speed of the city
turns to a slower pace, and the inherent tension slowly disappears like a sigh.
Drive out into the country and you’ll see
a patchwork of farms. Each farm neatly
lined with cultivated rows ready for the spring planting. In some will grow
corn, some will contain wheat, others a myriad of possible vegetables.
This is a life style that is foreign to
me. It is a life that, though it has its appeal, can never replace the home of
the city boy. After all, how can you
return to the farm once you have seen Paris?
Just because I’m a city boy does not mean
that I’m beyond taking a lesson from the country side. Jesus often used the
agrarian life as a setting for his parables when he taught his disciples. He
taught about planting seeds, he called his followers to go into the fields that
were already ready for the harvest, he talked of vineyards and warned of Gods
threshing floor where the chaff would be removed from the wholesome wheat.
One of
the images that strike me is the image of the man who plows the fields. Jesus
tells one of his potential followers in the book of Luke, “No one, having put his hand to
the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” It is a lesson that all Christian should
remember.
The man who plows the field does not look
behind him while he is plowing. If he looked back the rows would meander all
over the place. None of the rows would be straight. He only looks forward to
the end of the row.
In our walk we have to go forward as well.
The past can only serve as a distraction from our walk with Christ. No matter
if the things of our past are beneficial or not. Those past things will get us off the path
and take us into a different direction from the one that He, Christ wants us to
follow.
The things of the past only serve as a
distraction. Everything that we did in
the past, even those things that we got right, those things have to be set
aside. It does not matter that you once taught Sunday school or that you had a
wonderful prayer life it is what is happening now. Used-to-be’s don’t make honey. What you are doing now in your
relationship with God is all that matters. We have to keep in mind that we have
an end goal and Christ is at the end. Our goal is to become more like Jesus, to
achieve Christ likeness. We can only do this by looking forward and by keeping
our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
