(Luke 10:2)
Image courtesty of lev-lalev.org
A new school year has arrived. A season of sowing, of cultivating, and -- ultimately -- of harvesting. A season of anticipation, preparation, enthusiasm, and trepidation all tied into one. For in line with the above passage, there is so much good work to do with the hearts and minds of our youth and those who serve them. There are so many who can profoundly benefit from our daily toil in our field -- the field of education. How exciting to be rooted in a vocation that has so much impact on His seed!
Yet, as the passage also conveys, the work before us exceeds the reach of any one person, or even one profession. A prospect such as this can be daunting, even intimidating. Even more so when one considers what Christ says a bit later in Luke 10, "Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves." So in all of our well-intended service and optimism, we are reminded that our mindset and commitment to others is not universally shared. Therefore, we need to "gird up our loins" -- for the school year ahead will surely incur conflict and challenge and strife. And yet we pick up the tools of our trade and head out to the fields with determination because that is where the harvest lies, that is where we are called to serve.
But more than anything, in this season fraught with emotions ranging from enthusiasm to anticipation to trepidation, we should especially take heart from the fundamental law of the harvest, which is concisely expounded in Galations 6:7-8: "Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life."
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Dear Lord,
Thank you for the sublime honor of tilling Your fields, of serving Your creation. Let any anxiety about the coming school year dissipate in the knowledge and confidence that You always go before us and are always with us. Sow in our own hearts the good seed that we can then distribute and make fruitful ten and twenty fold in that portion of Your garden which you have entrusted to our care. In all things, help us to be good and faithful servants to our sisters and brothers, Your children, until that one day when You finally call us home.
In Your name, we pray.
Amen.
