The Perseverance of a Farmer
This piece is adapted from a training about developing and defending a disciple-making culture. This excerpt unpacks the final analogy of 2 Timothy 2:2-6. Used by permission.
“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. .. Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.
The hardworking farmer should be the first to receive a share of the crops.” – 2 Timothy 2:2-6 (NIV)
I wanted to make an urban garden. I’m from the city and I don’t know anything about gardens or herbs, but I had this little patch of land and thought, “Let’s do it.”
I rented a tiller and tried to till the ground. It was exhausting. I was surprised how hard it would be - I thought it would be an hour or two of work. But after a couple hours, my friend (who knows more than me) said, “It’s got to be a lot deeper.” So I rented the machine another day and went deeper. After two days of labor, guess what I had? Dirt.
I planted seeds, and every day, week after week, I watered them. Guess what I saw? Nothing. At this point, I didn’t know if I was doing the right thing – I was just going off what other people were telling me to do. But I kept doing it, and everything that seemed to sprout up was weeds. Those were going great! But that’s not what I wanted.
The things that I wanted weren’t popping up. I was doing the work, but not getting any fruit. I like short-term gratification and I wanted some positive reinforcement. By using a farming analogy, Paul tells Timothy that it’s the same way in discipleship. You never know how things are going in the middle of the process.
With discipleship, everything we’re doing is an act of faith. In Paul’s time, before modern techniques and hoses, all a farmer could do was pray that the Lord of the harvest would send down rain. After all that work, you still had to trust the sovereignty of God.
When developing and defending a disciple-making culture, it is imperative that we begin to understand the gravity of the world on our expectations. It will pull us to want to do something different because we need that short-term gratification: “Maybe I’m not doing the right thing. Maybe I need to go do something else, because obviously this isn’t working.”
Paul tells Timothy to persevere because he’s on the right track in fulfilling the Great Commission. If you want something that’s going to last from generation to generation, it’s going to take time. You’ve got to be single-minded like a soldier, disciplined like an athlete, and to persevere like a farmer.
Don’t miss our our free Winter Workshop with Dhati Lewis, “From Everyday Disciples to Everyday Disciple-Makers,” on Thurs Jan 20, 2p EST / 11a PST.
