Living here in the deep south of Georgia, we are blessed by being in the middle of farm country.  I hate the heat and the gnats of summer, but I LOVE the abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables available at roadside stands and the farmer’s market.  Having a pastor for a hubby is also nice, because some church members and other friends feel compelled to give from their own gardens….which is VERY nice!

The other day I had a good friend and ChickFilA customer bring me some fresh corn..as in, divine, just picked that morning corn!  It was fabulous, and I offered to even pay him for some more the next day, since he was going back to the field.  He told me there was no need to pay, because the farmer he was getting it from had overplanted and was glad to get rid of it.

The next day, he came in and said, “it’s too late.  He plowed the rest under last night”.  I could NOT believe it.  I was aware that sometimes that happened when crops failed, or drought hit, but NEVER with perfecty wonderful, delicious, healthy corn!  It was too expensive for him to pay his workers to pick it for the price he would get at the market.  I was so upset, because even in our county, our community, our church, there are people that I know that do not have enough to eat!  And here good fresh food had been WASTED – PLOWED UNDER – because of a farmer’s wrong perspective about what was in it for him.

I spent the rest of the day wondering how this could have happened, and what the truly hungry would have done for that food.  I wondered how the farmer could appear so callous.  And then God spoke…and what He said made me stop in my tracks, and repent.  Because you see, we have the best food of all – the Gospel and God’s Word and the story of salvation – and we hear it over and over, can see it on television, internet, books….we have an abundance!  And what do we mostly do?  We grow from what we “eat”, and share some with others, but the majority gets “plowed under” by our lack of willingness to “pay the price” to feed others!  Our country is experiencing all the effects of SPIRITUALLY starving people all around us..the most recent the SCOTUS decision about gay marriage…and yet we keep the knowledge we have to ourselves!  We sit Sunday after Sunday after Wednesday night receiving spiritual food, and we are NOT sharing!  We say it is easier to “plow it under” – to get enough for ourselves, and our fellow church members, but it is too costly to share.  And therefore we have the world we live in today.

I am preparing to quit feeding just myself and my friends and family.  I hope you will join me in taking the very precious food God has entrusted to us, and feed it to all those who need it most!