Hmmm. Sow.... plant.... reap....
As I chewed on these words, a thought began to take shape. With the recent economic crisis affecting our nation, there was a deep desire in my heart to reach out to those in need. Blessed with a couple of acres of land, this was something I could do! I could plant and give vegetables to local ministries and food pantries.
Once I really took the idea seriously though, doubts crept in. I had never done this before! How would I know what to do? How would I find the time, the money, the energy?
And then, one morning in April, I read this devotion written by Randy Kilore in Made to Matter:
Well, I heard the Lord loud and clear! I copied the page and pasted it in my journal, and I planted!! Twenty-one rows of vegetables on nearly a quarter acre!!
Thinking it might be an encouragement to him, I wrote Randy Kilgore and shared how his words had impacted me and moved me to action. His reply is one of the most remarkable emails I have ever received:
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Thank you so much for sharing this news with me, and more than that, for being willing to share with others. It is a remarkably moving and unbelievably meaningful act. I'm deeply humbled God would use my words in this way, and willingly and delightfully I give Him all the glory and credit for even the selection of the phrasing.
I remember many nights, years ago, when as a boy I'd be playing at a friend's house while his mother was cooking dinner. The smells wafting through the air made me sad because I knew my dinner would be lettuce with heated up bacon grease used for dressing. On good nights we had hot dogs, but that was a rarity. Too proud even as a boy, I never accepted invitations to eat over at my friends' house. It didn't seem fair for me to eat so well when my two brothers wouldn't; it was easier to do without. Those nights without food, and days and days of hunger, still haunt me. At the time, they left me feeling like I was somehow less important and less deserving of the things everyone else had, and while I wasn't old enough to think it was God I was less important to, that's the place the hungry go in their thinking.
So when you share your food with others, let me promise you it will be giving them more than sustenance. Not all who receive it will be grateful, and not all will see it as coming from the hand of God, but most will, even if they only realize it later. Some will be forever set free from the idea they are less important to God merely because they're not hungry. It's why that passage in Matthew 25 appears so often in my writings... "hungry and you fed me..." I know with certainty that food becomes tangible evidence of God's love even to those who refuse to admit they're looking for Him to love them.
You've given me a gift that exceeds my ability to express gratitude. Somewhere out there in the crowd of unseen folks who will be the recipients of your efforts is the ghost of a 9 year old boy, grinning ear to ear as he watches somebody else get something he longed for so long... God's love expressed as tomatoes, cucumbers and peas.
Warmest regards in Christ,
Randy
