In my undergraduate days in college at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, I took a course about the various stages of industry. There is primary activity (farming, forestry) which includes many Henry county folks, secondary activity (production, like YellaWood), and tertiary activity (transport, education, health and commerce). While, in modern business, this might be an oversimplification, it was interesting to learn about these things.
The reason I bring this up isn't to give us a primer in business activity. It relates more to a puzzlement I have encountered in the past few weeks. In the midst of hundreds of chicken houses and millions of chickens, why are chicken fingers scarce at Food Giant and roasted chickens scarce at Sam's? The old saying "water, water, everywhere and not a drop to drink" comes to mind. What's up with the scarcity of chickens? There seems to be a disconnect between growing the chickens and getting the chickens where they rightly belong ... my table!
This was my mindset as I reflected on a mountaintop experience called Discipleship Now (DNow), attended by me and some of our youth over the past weekend. Here is my question. Why is it that in the midst of all that worship, all that wonderful music, all the spoken-word poetry, all the preaching, all the teaching and all the people involved, we leave these events and see hope, intensity, and shared-unity fade? It might just have a relationship to why we have so many chicken houses and so few chickens! Here's my take!
All through the Old Testament we hear of people who live in the valley. Mountains are hard to navigate and have conditions that are not conducive to supporting groups of people. Moses went to Mount Sinai to receive the 10 Commandments, but he brought them down to the valley where the people were camped. Joshua 17 recounts that the Canaanites, who had "chariots of iron," lives in the valley. Midian (Judges 7) camped in the valley (armies did that a lot) where God told Gideon to "go down against the camp." We leave the mountaintops, go down into the valleys and do the activities that people do, living life and forgetting the thrill, joy and even danger of the mountain.
Abbeville, while the town is on a hill, is filled with normal, good valley folk. Agriculture and Processing (primary and secondary activities) are the foundation of our economy. We are caught up in daily life, raising children and doing what those Old Testament people did ... living life in the valley. But maybe it is time to do something a little different. Because valleys are for something more valuable than just surviving ... they should be places we, as God's people, thrive.
Crops, supplying the entire nation, are grown in the valley. Bordering the valley, fruit trees bear their crops. Cotton and peanuts are produced on the level ground. And (maybe) we should learn to bear fruit in those valleys and lowlands too! 150 children and numerous adults left the DNow mountaintop and have gone back to the valley. They have returned to their churches, and some (hopefully) have now decided to "follow Jesus" (we all sang that song Friday). How would Jesus lead us from the mountain into the valley? How would Jesus lead us so that we would bear the fruit of the harvest ... souls for the kingdom and unity for God's people? I have an idea, but I need your help.
First, pray for me/us to make connections with some of the brothers and sisters I met over last weekend. Pray we will find a way to bring the fruit of unity from the mountain to the valley. This will not happen if we all do business as usual. So pray (Matthew 9 ... "pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest, to send out laborers into His harvest.").
Second, be willing to "sow seeds" that (in Matthew 13) might fall into places that are not conducive to growth. Some of our work will come up empty, because our seeds will fall on the rocky soil, the path or the shallow soil. But (like the farmers in Henry County) we still sow, realizing we must trust "the Lord of the harvest." If God is calling us to this work, it can produce "a hundred, or sixty, or thirty times what was sown." Because it is His harvest!
Finally, we must remember one important thing about farming. I learned this, hoeing red-clay dirt clods, robust weeds and pruning tomato plants. Farming is hard, sweaty and uncomfortable work. One must give up time, recreation and other things, so that the seeds can grow and prosper.
Back to why we have no chickens in the stores? Too few workers at the processing plants ... an impaired and inadequate delivery system (worker shortages, high fuel prices). Some of you have your own theories, and I won't delve into the extreme theories I have heard. But one thing I do know. In the last two weeks I have heard credible accounts from people I know that they could not get chickens at Sam's or chicken fingers at Food Giant. That is serious stuff that strikes me right where I live ... the dinner table!
So ... "pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." Pray ... realize laborers are needed ... remember that this is the Lord's harvest.
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