Pastor Don's Ponderings

Thousands upon thousands of dollars have already been spent on replacement parts and maintenance, hundreds upon hundreds of hours have already been spent repairing equipment and servicing the tractors which will pull the equipment and hundreds of thousands of dollars of seed, fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides have been purchased and are waiting in the storehouses for use . . . and it continues to rain. You do not need a drone to check out the fields around here right now: They are wet. If you have ever wondered if people still pray, stand near a closed shed door with a farmer this time of year as another round of rain covers the earth. Oh, the rain may be pretty and the smell of a Spring rain may be absolutely intoxicating, but every thought, every word, which emanates from a farmer who is ready to start tillage and cannot because of rain is a prayer from their lips to God's ears.  Watch their eyes. They may look up as though checking the clouds but, truth be told, th...

Storms swept through the area a little while ago and, as I went out to check the rain gauge, a wry smile crossed my face as I wondered how this would be reported by the area farmers. Looking at the gauge I mused: The realist would report that we had eight tenths of an inch of rain; The optimist would report that we had eight tenths of an inch, yet the way the ditches were running we probably had a bit more than that, but the gauge just couldn't get an accurate measurement; and, The pessimist would report that we received less than an inch of rain, even though God knew we needed more in anticipation of Spring planting. It is all a matter of perspective, mixed with a sense of relationship to the dynamic world in which we live, and liberally side-dressed with enough 'one-ups-man-ship' so as to appear sufficiently knowledgeable without giving away an unspoken bias. How much rain a farmer either receives or needs at any one moment on the farm is generally directly related t...