I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting at our hostel in Nicaragua waiting until it was time to go to ministry. I wasn’t particularly excited this day. Our objective was to go work with a local ministry doing manual labor. Now, I love some good ol fashioned hard work, but this was not my cup of tea. We were told we were going to plant baby mango trees and pray over them. Little twigs is more like it. There was land for miles, and hundreds of trees to plant. We had multiple jobs that day, some were to machete the brush that had built up, others were to plant and pray, and others were to take the brush we hacked up and lay it around the base of the trees as fertilizer. Not to mention we had to do all this is 110 degree weather.
That month I was reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan (incredible book if you have not read it- here is the link to purchase a copy: http://amzn.to/2mN6ySV) At one point that morning in my reading I started to weep. I don’t remember the full context, but the scripture did stick out to me.
Jeremiah 1:9-10 Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”
This is extremely taken out of context in the way I was reading it, but it resonated with me this day, and the Lord knew it was exactly what I needed to read. Our team was not the originally intended team that was to go plant trees, but that was the way it worked out.
The Lord appointed us. Specifically over this nation. He was sending us out to uproot and tear down, but also to build and plant. I was never more excited to plant a tree than in that moment. I knew this was an assignment suited for us, given from the throne room itself.
It was hot that day, we planted hundreds of trees, and prayed for hours. We sang and danced in the fields and had a wonderful day. I was reminded time and time again of the scripture I had read. I remember thinking I don’t HAVE to do this, I GET to do this.
Fast forward a year and a half later…
Last week our friend from Nicaragua came for a visit. He is the long term missionary we worked with during that month. At one point during our recent conversation I asked him jokingly, so how are those mango trees doing…not anticipating his reply…
He said they are soooo good! They are taller than me! They have provided a pretty sustainable income for the locals working in the fields. All your hard work paid off!
I felt the most overwhelming feeling in my spirit. Who would of known the work we did so long ago would of produced anything but sweat.
I was reminded of the scripture in Galatians “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
I wanted to write this blog to encourage you; do not give up. Whatever season the Lord has you in, whether its a time of tearing down, or building up…You have no idea what he has in store for you. You will reap a harvest. You may never even see the fruit produced, but trust that he is a God of completion, and all things will be made beautiful in it’s time. It could be relationships you’re investing in that seem tiresome, building a literal building, going to school to get an education, planting a garden, or personal soul work within yourself, maybe you have prayed and prayed and haven’t received answers. Don’t give up. It may take days, weeks, months, or even years. But the Lord IS faithful to finish was he starts.
Little did we know that day the magnitude of what we were doing. We had no idea that the Lord was going to use that field as a source of income for locals years later. I now see the benefit of working hard even if you never see the outcome. The concept of sowing and reaping has powerfully been revealed to me through this process. A field of trees we have sown, and a harvest we have reaped.
