Many years ago, I first heard the story of the farmer and the preacher. It was related by Earl Nightingale, the late author and motivational speaker. In the story, a traveling preacher is on the road to one of his churches and on the way sees a farmer plowing his fields. The farm is beautiful and stretches for miles in every direction. In the distance, the preacher can see a magnificent home and freshly painted barn. Livestock, including cows, horses, pigs, chickens and ducks can be seen and heard in the fields.
The preacher stops his car and as the farmer approaches, he motions to the hard-working laborer and offers a greeting in his direction. The farmer stops his tractor, jumps to the ground and saunters up to the preacher. “How may I help you, padre”? inquires the farmer. The preacher looks directly at the farmer and motions toward the farm, with all its beauty and states, “God his certainly blessed you, my son. Your farm, fields and home are outstanding and appear to be producing crops of bounty.” “God has blessed you greatly!” The farmer removes his cap, wipes his brow with his sleeve and looks directly at the preacher. “You are perfectly correct, reverend.” “The lord has certainly blessed me abundantly and for that I am eternally grateful.” The farmer then paused to catch his breath, looked up at the cloudless sky and then, returning his gaze to the preacher he replied, with conviction, “But you should have seen this place when He had it all to himself!”
I have always loved that story because it taught me, so simply, that no matter what gifts we are given by God, it is ultimately what we do with those blessings that makes all the difference. We may be dealt a winning hand at birth, born into the right family, given all that can possibly be dreamed of by any child and then needlessly squander all of those gifts and talents. Or,we might arrive in this world with nothing, struggle every day to merely exist and then one day achieve success beyond our wildest dreams. Either way, the important thing to remember is that it is all up to you.
You can lament your place in life, the bad breaks, a dysfunctional family or simply bad breaks; but complaining will get you absolutely nowhere. Whining about how unfair life can be, will not lead you to where you want to go; only you can vow to make the decision to act and improve your lot in life. We are not promised an easy life, or even one free from problems of all kinds and types. However, what we are given are talents and abilities to actually do something about it. We need only make the decision to stop griping and get going.
Much like the farmer, we might begin with our fields filled with rocks, critters and obstacles. We may even have boulders standing in our way. Wishing, hoping and complaining about those impediments will not make them disappear, only our complete efforts will remove them. And usually, if our goal is large enough, there will be many rocks in our way and our path will not always be a straight line.
There will be times when we feel like quitting, when the job seems too large and the problems way too complex; but we are never alone. He is always there with us and if we truly believe and listen intently, we will discover solutions and opportunities that will help us complete our work and resolve our problems. The key, is to keep looking, keep trying, keep working and remain on course. Often, success is just behind the next door.
Someone once asked Thomas Edison how he ever kept going, while he was attempting to build a light bulb. He had failed, literally thousands of times and he still had not created even one bulb. Edison simply replied that he had not failed. In fact, he had discovered 1000 ways to not create a light bulb. That is persistence. And as we all know, he ultimately was successful. How many of us would have given up long before failure number 100?
One fine someone will compliment you on your achievements and, just like the preacher, remind you how lucky you are to have accomplished all that you have done with your life. You can then, just like the farmer, say to them that they should have been there when you began and you had nothing but a dream and a plan. You will then be able to reflect on everything you have accomplished and all the lives you have influenced and recall that through hard work and a dogged determination you achieved your objectives and farmed your very own field…and the results are certainly magnificent. Thank God for all His blessings and assistance along the way and remember what a joy it was to make it so. The satisfaction really lies in the daily struggle. Your reward awaits. All you have to do is to begin. A field does not plow itself.