Fields of Labor

by Fay Barlow
(Lexington, Sc USA)

Matthew 9:35-38
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

I can only remember one time in my life when I truly labored. (Beside childbirth) When I was about thirteen or so, my older sister and I decided we wanted a summer job. I never liked to baby sit so that was completely out of the question, but our mother had a friend around the corner, (we lived in the country so around the corner was about three quarter of a mile) who owned a plant nursery. We thought that that would be the ideal job for us. It would give us a chance to be out in the sun, bronzing our skin and naturally highlighting our hair. And the money we would make would come in handy for all those beautiful clothes that would show off our newly glowing frames.

So we talked our mom into asking her friend to let us work for her. The friend (can’t remember her name) warned us how hot the June Louisiana heat can be and how dirty the job was, but we didn’t care. We, well me anyway, had fantasized the whole situation and I was convinced that the experience would leave me with a tanned and toned body, money for new clothes and beautifully highlighted hair.

The thing we didn’t understand about labor is, well, how hard it is. The first few hours of work were good. We were pumped and the sun felt good on us while we happily carried plants from one side of the nursery to another. The sprinklers would come on and cool us off a bit, which refreshed us so we insisted that we didn’t need sunscreen.

But then noon came and the plants we were moving from one place to another began to feel heavier and heavier. The sprinklers stopped running and we were dirty from head to toe. I had never sweat so much in my life as I did in that first day. We were tired, sunburned and we stunk!

We went home complaining to our mom about the terrible day we had but she reminded us that we knew what the job entailed and we had to see it through. But for two young girls, imagining going to work for an entire summer in what felt like the depths of Hades, was too much for us.

We did make it through one more day and it proved worse than the first. We were sunburned from the day before and no amount of sunscreen could cover our pain. We cried and begged and whined until our mom had to go and talk to her friend to get us out of the job. That was tough labor.

Sometimes I view working for the kingdom in the same way. I want to bring hope of the gospel to people but in my flesh, I don’t want to be uncomfortable. I don’t want to experience rejection or ridicule.

Sometimes I would like to revert back to sitting in the back of the church and sneaking out before the last song, because I don’t want to get involved in other people's lives. I don’t want to be faced with tough issues. I want the glamor of telling the good news, without getting involved. It’s like the money I wanted from the job without the dirt and back ache and sunburn.

Our labor will be different when we began to think the way Christ did. Verse 36 says that when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like a sheep without a shepherd.

When I look at people around me, I can’t help but have compassion on them. They too are weary and scattered. But because of the commitment and harshness of labor, even Jesus said that the laborers would be few. There is little glamor and reward (external) in being a laborer. But when Jesus becomes real and when you began to understand the things that grieve His heart and the scattering of souls, becoming a laborer is easy.

Maybe it’s in the motivation. My motivation for working in the nursery had nothing to do with my love of agriculture, but was purely motivated by money. My motivation for wanting to become a laborer for the kingdom of God should be about the heart of God, and not about my comfort or how others will view me.

So I am letting God know that I am available for the job of laborer and that I understand that there is much work involved. And I may get tired and worn out from time to time, but as long as God shines His Son on me (no sunscreen needed) and rains down refreshing showers when I am weary, the harvest will come.