Protecting the harvest – lifestyle of a warrior.
Honestly, my backyard is a natural, unofficial urban zoo! It’s an endless stream of live animal action. There’s no way around it, my garden and it’s harvest is the at-risk-eco-zone of my city. As a result, without choice, I am part of a war-zone where my role is protecting the harvest in my garden … and of course I’m joking … but seriously there’s always a nocturnal animal leaving chomped and stomped garden leaves behind.
I feel a bit like Joan of Arc, Garden Warrior.
You know, I don’t think Joan of Arc signed up to live the lifestyle of a warrior before she was born. It sort of fell into her lap at a really young age. It was her mandate and calling based on what was going on around her in her life and country.
Consequently she became a young warrior who persevered and never let go of the passion and fire that God placed in her heart. Even when it wasn’t popular with the church or state – or even her own preference. Her sphere of influence grew into raising up warriors out of normal peasants.
So yeah, for me, I don’t ride a horse or wear armor and carry a spear … but I do walk out to my garden every morning and do what it takes to maintain and protect my garden. And yes … I’m really no comparison to Joan of Arc when I’m in my garden. Or am I?
Maybe it’s about more than just my garden.
Somehow I’m sort of complaining under my breath how on the one hand I love nature and on the other hand I’m wondering what on earth does it take to keep the animal population OUT of my garden, so I can at least have a half-way decent harvest?
No, wait … I want the full harvest! This is not entitlement. If I’m going to take the time to till and plant and maintain … I want to reap what I’ve labored into. This future harvest belongs to me, and I will do what it takes to protect the harvest!!!
Then there’s this quiet aha-moment. I hear God gently confront my complaint with a phrase that starts to play on repeat in my brain: I’m called to a lifestyle of protecting the harvest. I lean in a little more, and ask God to talk to me about that.
It’s a warrior mindset.
This isn’t a fighting mindset, but it’s an inward stance that says “this dream, these seeds; they are going to produce and multiply, because that’s what seeds do. And I’m going to do what it takes!”
All this is beginning to remind me of the dreams and passion in my heart that God is awakening me to – or more accurately, re-awakening me to.
And that the daily tending that I do, as I pause in the presence of God, hearing what He has to say to me through the wisdom of His word … all this helps me protect the harvest that God has promised that my life would produce.
Daily tending is where protecting the harvest begins.
The seeds of dreams and gifts that God has given us will bring us places. Proverbs says that your gifts make room for you in the courts of kings. Proverbs 18:16. That actually means something!
Ok, so Queen Elizabeth isn’t waiting for me to show up with my guitar to sing a little tune … but God has appointed times and places where my gifts make a difference in people’s lives. In fact, we all have special things that we are good at or passionate about, gifts from God.
We each have a destiny that will impact the world around us.
So protecting the harvest. The concept is pushing itself in new ways into my creative brain.
I’m standing looking at my garden (in which I’m doing all I can to defend and protect!), and I realize that again, it’s a lot like life. Like valiant Joan of Arc, I didn’t really sign up to be a warrior, daily in my life. Not just on behalf of my garden … but my dreams, my health, … my kids … my family.
Protecting the harvest is not a new idea. It’s woven throughout history.
Even 400 years before Christ (400 BC), there was an exile in Babylon whose name was Nehemiah (I’m betting he didn’t ask to be an exile, being rounded up from his homeland, and brought as a political captive to the leading empire of the day, this was not a war or a path that he signed up for).
Nehemiah had dreams in his heart that he tended and nurtured until it almost killed him. It was actually fatal if you were a cupbearer in those days and you appeared unhappy before the king. These narcissistic rulers didn’t want to come into contact with any reminders of wider world realities.
Characteristically they didn’t care either, about anyone else’s dreams coming true … seeds and harvests… all that stuff.
Well, one day Nehemiah served the king something (with a long face) and the king asked him what was troubling him. Then came the moment of decision. Would he back away and say nothing? Let fear and circumstances prevent him from living the dream God had put in his heart?
Only a few short chapters later (Nehemiah 4) Nehemiah is leading a crew and they are rebuilding the ruined walls of Jerusalem. They are being heckled, distracted, discouraged and threatened by the enemies of their destiny. They went into protecting the harvest mode as it were.
Despite those overwhelming obstacles, Nehemiah and the workers built using only one hand and while they held a weapon in the other … and they did this until the goal of their dream was complete.
It doesn’t seem a fair deal at first glance to have to protect the harvest as we’re planting it!
But actually, it does sharpen our focus and it does reveal to us what is important to us and worth contending for. Mixed with prayer and God’s blessing, the multiplied harvest is gathered at the end of this kind of warrior season.
[So, I’m going ALL OUT protecting the harvest … overcoming obstacles … God-given ingenuity to keep dreams alive … in my garden and my life!]
Nehemiah and his people completed their work with a trowel in one hand, and a spear in the other, all the while being scoffed at and threatened. Joan of Arc wrestled with being a misunderstood, uneducated, peasant teen who clearly heard from God and had powerful battle plans that were more crazy amazing than any army captain could come up with …
It’s all tied together … dreams and seeds and harvests and obstacles … and doing what it takes to press on and stay committed to be strong and courageous and complete the God-given dreams in your heart (Joshua 1:9)!
Yes! What we are called to in this life is a tall order … should I have to do spiritual warfare while I tend to my daily life … even while I sleep?!?! Well, Nehemiah and his workers stayed dressed and ready around the clock – even when they slept! They were part of an amazing work that had impact for many generations and even nations.
If this wrestle is what it means to protect the harvest, is that even fair?
Well, it really depends on what you want your outcomes to be in life. If you want your harvest, you must contend for it daily. Like Joan of Arc.
Use the promises of God to remind yourself what God has promised to do in your life – and use the Word of God as a weapon against the enemy.
But if engaging in the battle and standing our ground against the enemy of our harvest is what it takes, while working at our life goals, then I think we all agree it is worth it. When you fight tooth and nail for your dream, your focus becomes razor sharp. And focus is never a bad thing.
Who wants a mediocre life, with mediocre outcomes, and a lost/stolen harvest (by ground hogs, squirrels … the little foxes that spoil the vine as Solomon said in Song of Songs 2:15)?!
So what’s your focus, what are you actually looking for?
And if you’re going to protect the harvest, you have to know what crop you’re looking for.
A few years ago an elderberry tree began growing in my yard. I didn’t know what it was, so I almost pulled it out like a weed (haha, like one of those dandelions from a few blog entries ago!) My brother Mike identified what kind of plant it was, and told me how to care for it so that the following year it would bloom like crazy and produce a ton of berries.
That leads us to another thought.
In order to protect the harvest, you have to know what it’s going to look like.
I needed to know the characteristic look of the plant, what the blooms looked like, and how to prevent the birds from gorging themselves on the harvest, before the chance to pick the berries ever arrived!
So I learned another lesson about protecting the harvest.
King Solomon wrote: without a vision the people perish (Proverbs 29:18) and the prophet Habbakuk encouraged the reader to write down the vision and make it plain, so a herald [you!] can run with it.
Take time to listen and dream – ask God to show you what His purposes for you are. And write it down. It probably won’t come all at once – although it might!
Usually God’s plans unfold in real time … we think it’s a too slow and laggy pace, but really it’s a beautiful pace, and it’s what’s needed. Our journey with God through each twist and turn prepares us for each season of harvest in our life.
God doesn’t want us to get lost in our own life, one day waking up and going … wow, everything’s changed: who am I and what is going on?!
As we partner with God and listen to the nuances of wisdom that He places in our hearts He unfolds His plans and vision for us.
He often speaks through the tugs we have in our hearts to follow our dreams and use our gifts and do the things we love. When we trust in Him and commit our thoughts and ways to Him, when we delight ourselves in Him, He gives us the desires of our hearts. (Psalm 37:3-4)
That is a harvest worth protecting, from the get-go, from the moment we are aware of the seeds of dreams in our hearts. Commit them to God and see how He leads you. What He opens no one can shut, and what He shuts no one can open (Revelation 3:7). I challenge you to spend some time today, pausing, asking, listening, reflecting … Proverbs 3:5-6.
Copyright (c) 2019 Jennifer Bryant-Choong. All Rights Reserved.
