left to lay fallow

Fall has arrived.  Fields are being harvested- Some with great bounty.

Harvest isn’t a word used only in reference to the farm.  In each season of life there have been harvests.  Some brought abundance and joy.  The growth was enlightening.  Some harvests brought peace and calm.  Some brought encouragement and progress in the midst of chaos.  Some harvests may not have seemed so bountiful, but only after going through the drought do you realize you hold in your hand (and heart) a valuable harvest of a few precious seeds that will greatly impact all future harvests to come.

There are times, though, when a season does not bring harvest; for it was a time where things were left fallow. 

Fallow: plowed and left unseeded for a season or more; uncultivated;
not in use; inactive; undeveloped or inactive, but potentially useful.

I think I possess some areas of life that have been left fallow for a bit – uncultivated, inactive.  This is not necessarily a bad thing however.  You see, there are deep correlations between fallow and fertile.  I read that the benefits of leaving land fallow for extended periods include rebalancing soil nutrients, breaking crop disease and pest cycles, re-establishing soil biota and providing a haven for wildlife. 

Standing still with my fallowness, I consider that perhaps I’ve been giving these areas a time to balance; a time to break the pest cycles of habits and urgent chaotic activities that interrupt harvests; a time for a haven of sorts.

I consider how God has engineered rest into the very fabric of creation.  Perhaps I need to engineer rest into the fabric of my time – my pace – my being.  What better example to follow.

I will be planting seeds again.  And I know the Creator and Lord will bring forth harvests that are more that I could’ve imagined!

Psalm 46:10  “Be still, and know that I am God.”
1 Corinthians 9:10 Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest.