Riding with my brother

One day last Fall I had the opportunity to ride a few rounds in the combine with my brother, Larry, as he clipped off another field. For those who are not accustomed to such a sight, this is a soybean field and we are sitting in the cab of the farm's John Deere combine. What you see in front of you near the ground is the header of the machine, the reel turns in a forward fashion bringing the standing crop into the header, which then moves it back into the rotary separator in the largest portion of the combine. The soybeans, once separated from the stalk and pod of the plants, will then move by way of the clean grain auger into the hopper on top of the machine and the residue of the soybean plant will be chopped and scattered behind the machine. It is really something to watch, especially when you can do it up close from in the cab sitting next to the operator.
A ride with Larry in the fields is seldom just a ride. The cab is his office for a large amount of time in Fall, so as he runs the combine he is also answering the phone about where loads of fertilizer are to go, managing the preparation of fields for the sowing of wheat and keeping an eye out on the weather as he steers the combine around any unexpected hazards in the field or deals with clogs in the header. It is not a task for the weak of heart, requiring good hand-eye coordination and a steady demeanor to get it all done efficiently and completely. Larry is the right man for the job - and I am so very proud that he is my brother. He is doing what is is called and gifted to do and he loves it.
Time in the cab with Larry is also some of the best therapy any pastor could hope to receive. We talk about everything: family, the farm, field plans, the church, ministry, what is going well, what is troubling, life in the State of Illinois, life in St. Clair County and life in our nation, as well in our world. Commodity market struggles in Darmstadt, Illinois have as much to do with understanding the trade contracts China as planting intentions require a sense of what is going on in South America: As the Church of Jesus Christ is not any one denomination (don't tell some people that!), neither is farming just what happens in the United States - or in Darmstadt. We live, labor and worship in a global village, for and with a God who is greater than any of our understandings or visions. So it is that, as we circle the fields, we also circle the gambit of topics, both of us silently acknowledging that the best part of it all is that we genuinely love each other, as do each of our brothers. We are, in so many ways, best friends who just need to be near one another once in a while to draw security, strength and peace for the challenges which lie ahead. The thought of that makes my heart smile with wonder.
If so for us as mere human beings, then how much more so for our relationship with God? How many times is God at work in the fields of our lives, just waiting for us to saunter over during a turn on the headland and 'thumb a ride' in the Cab of God's Being? How many times does God long to hear our story, the highs and the lows, and just be a sounding board of faith along the way? How many times does God want to say something, to guide down a different path or to affirm the journey we are on, but we are nowhere to be found with too little time to listen?
People ask me why I still advocate going to worship with a congregation these days, instead of really focusing in on the 'online/Live Stream' approach - and this is just another reason: I want others to know what it is to sit in the Cab with God and listen to what God has to say. I want others to know what it is to have a Brother, a Best Friend, who loves them as deeply as anyone of us can ever be loved. Yet, most of all, I want them, you, to know you are not alone: God may be busy in the Cab, but never too busy for you and all which is your life. Jesus is our Assurance and Promise of that.
Say what you want, believe what you want, do what you want, but as for me there is no better place to be in the midst of the Harvest than in the fields with God . . . and my brother, Larry, reminds me of that. Sometimes you just have to take time to feed your own spirit before you can be any earthly good for others, sometimes you just have to ride a few rounds in the combine - or take an hour or two in worship with Jesus. Try it some time, you might be really surprised.
It is something to ponder on the journey. 
(c)dcw2020
Photograph (c)dcw2019

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