What's being sowed in your field?

     I grew up in a family where no religion was practiced.  There was no Bible training.  We worked hard and long hours on the family farm.  Maybe you grew up in a similar fashion?  The parallel between the farm and the religion aspect wasn't noticed nor addressed until much later in my life.  We raised all kinds of crops, had a huge garden and lots of cattle, pigs, chickens, and horses.  Life was filled with attention to the farming, care for the animals and in the winter I was able to play basketball because most of the farm work was done for the season.  The same care and attention to my spiritual life wasn't considered important.  What was sowed in my life was character.  Though people thought I was quite the character, I'm really talking about my work ethic.  The work ethic is only as good as the focus that is required to achieve a good work ethic.  The same goes for religious training.  We all know those who have been in Sunday school since they were 2 and are now 60.  They have a Sunday school ethic.  They know how to "do" religion much like I know how to work.  The disparity is found when we understand that teaching worth ethic and teaching believer ethic are two very different animals.  I wasn't committed to farming.  My work ethic was to be used in many other vocations.  When I became a Christian, my Christian ethic was focused on Jesus and has been ever since.
     Over the years I've been up and down in my Christian ethic and sometimes even my work ethic.  You have too.  We all react to life differently and often to the detriment of our focus.  When we work hard we expect the reward of a job well done (and money).  When we move in that same direction with our Christian ethic we expect to hear, "well done my good and faithful servant."  The work ethic can be rewarded daily if we have a good one.  The Christian ethic's reward is heard when we have overcome the world and stand before Jesus.  The focus for a work ethic is day to day much like the Christian ethic.  The reward for each is found in different form.  For me, the ability to step back and know I've done a good job is all the reward my work ethic needs to be fueled for another day.  For me, the ability to at the end of the day to see that I've done what God asked of me fuels me for another day.  But what happens when that ability to be the person with a good ethic ends?  In 2006 I was taken off work on injuries and have been permanently disabled unable to work since.  Did my work ethic cease?  No!  I can wash dishes, sweep the floor, wash the car and a lot of other tasks.  The work ethic doesn't end when the world says you can't work anymore.  It's important to continue the ethic no matter the circumstances.
     Same goes for the Christian ethic.  Though I've held multiple positions where my Christian faith was the focus of my work, I've not always been able to do what God has asked me to do.  Usually because of my own issues and selfishness.  Maybe you feel the same way?  Just as my disabilities don't cancel out my work ethic, there are always ways your Christian ethic can continue on in spite of you.  Trying events in my life have challenged both the work and Christian ethic.  Sometimes those challenges are a consequence of my sin.  Sometimes they aren't.  Should I have taken the seeds of doubt, seeds of giving up, and seeds of failure into my fields, the ethics would shrivel and die.  Many choose this focus rather than understanding that the God of the universe sees and knows us as no other can.  God knows that I want to work and provided tasks around the house and property that I can manage.  He knows my limitations.  God knows that I want to be active in my Christian ethic to which there are no bounds.  He knows my limitations.  Nowhere in my life has God ever brought me to where I couldn't go on.  The world has definitely tried repeatedly to plant the seeds of "not good enough" everywhere in my life.  Notice the difference.  My work and Christian ethic remain intact because they are founded deep within me, well rooted and watered.  Perhaps your life is the same.  I don't know.  I do know that it's always your and my choice.  What do you choose today?