harvest time

In the dim and distant past I used to work on farms up north through my summer holidays.

We got paid,of course. But I didn't do it for the money. It was the life I loved. And the work.

There were times when the weather was good and the evening light was long - there were times at harvest when we almost worked right round the clock.

It was a seasonal thing, obviously. Harvest. The crops were ripe, the weather was good, the nights were clear. And we only stopped when the dew began to form.

All we did was work - and long hours later, on collapse on a bed for a few hours' sleep before being up and out again. They were days of opportunity.

These days just now are a bit like that. Sometimes it feels like it's almost round the clock, there's that much to be done. But they're days of opportunity. A kind of harvest time.

Today I was up and out by 6am again. There was the third of the sessions I have with the Primary 6s to be prepared. And that takes time. A lot of time. And I knew that if I didn't get it done by 10am, the way the day was panning out I wouldn't get it done at all!

A good long run at it was all I really needed. Which is what I got. There's something of a harvest in the school these days. I'm sure of it. A lot going on.

All the different classes I'm invited to instruct. The SU group. The chance to meet and chat with teachers and by being around the place to get to see and speak with all the other folk who're there as well.

I mean, the chance to spend five solid weeks going over with the Primary 5s the essence of Christianity. The chance to spend four lengthy sessions with the Primary 6s giving them a picture of just who this Jesus is.

In many parts of Scotland in these days, that's really now the stuff of dreams!

But all the weekly working of this ground, the school, the week-by-week attendance at assemblies over years, that sort of thing - all that weekly working of the ground across the years is really like the farmer sowing seed. A harvest time arrives.

And when the harvest comes, it's not the time to take a long lie-in or anything!

The bulk of the morning I was meeting with folk about the future of The Lot. I knew it would be a fairly lengthy meeting, so I'd set aside the time. I knew it would be important too.

It's somehow part of the 'harvest' time as well. At least, it feels like that. Part of the culmination of the Lord's long work in my own life and in the life of the people here as well.

The Lot is a venture up in the centre of town which has been up and running now for some 3 or so years. It owes its life to the call of God and a faithful, risk-taking response to that call which he clearly gave.

It's a 'venue', with a bistro, which encourages the arts. And, as it advertises itself, simply 'a good place to be'.

But it's reaching a critical time in its ongoing story. It's really God's story. And it's reached the end of a chapter.

It's meant to be a 'ministry'. In many ways it's effectively a very different way of being and doing 'church'. And from the start I've believed this is God's future.

So we were meeting to chat through ... well, what happens next, I guess! It helped to bring a little bit more clarity. It was good to meet and to pray like that. To learn what it is in this particular context to 'walk humbly' with our God. Keeping in step with him.

It's a sort of harvest time again, I think. The hard work done for three long years now opening up potential for a whole new realm of ministry up town. Exciting. And scary!

From there I popped across the lane to see the lady in the local surgery whose uncle had died. Harvest time again I think!

We've spent long years befriending all these folk. There's not been any real agenda. Jesus didn't operate like that. He simply offered friendship, love and care. No strings attached. And people enjoyed having him around.

In a sense that's all we've ever done.

And now the love that's sown in simple ways like that begins to grow a harvest. An open door for sharing with this family at very much a huge big time of need.

The middle of the day gave a chance to slow the pace. A bit. Lunch together with the Reception Area team.

We meet reasonably regularly and at this time of year it's grown to be a custom that we have a Christmas lunch. The man who heads it up is great that way. Makes it a special occasion, a meal out for the girls here, as a way of saying thank you to them all for all they do.

There's business, too, of course, to which we have to give our minds. But it's mainly a time of celebration. Standing back just a bit and seeing what the Lord's been doing across the months. And catching a sense of all he's yet to do.

Because here, too, I think there are hints of a coming harvest.

There was work to be done in the afternoon - so I had to go easy on lunch! Bits of preparation and some letters to be written. That sort of thing.

And then at night on round to see the couple that I meet with, not quite weekly but on a pretty regular basis.

We cover all sorts of different themes and we started tonight with patterns. Mathematical patterns - because Paul's into that sort of thing in a big sort of way.

That got us taking a look at Genesis 1. Which moved us on to the gospel of John. And that in turn got us on to seeing behind the 'patterns' in events. And how we can discern sometimes a message from the Lord in what's going on.

We were talking about the number of deaths there had been. And how I'd begun to wonder if through all of this the Lord perhaps was saying that in order for his new thing to emerge the old must somehow die.

I'm wondering what's going on and what the Lord is saying through it all, I must confess. There's something going on. And I think it's bound up with the harvest.

The seeds must die. That's how Jesus put it. If you want to have a harvest then the seeds must die. Be buried in the ground.

It certtainly feels like harvest time these days!