Bob, The Farmer

Bob, The Farmer

August 11, 2005

Bob, The Farmer

God called me into the garden today and I obediently went
out there. I knew that I had a full day of things to do
but wanted to be obedient. God said harvest the beans so I
did. I mused that there must be some lessons in store for
me as I dutifully went down the row and picked the beans.
God frequently gives me a comparison between agriculture
and UPC.

I thought back about the soil that had been so soft and
moist because I had used a tiller to prepare it. I could
have planted the seeds without using the tiller, but it was
a lot easier and quicker. The tiller was expensive, but
looking at the plants, I could easily see that it saved me
time and produced a bigger crop. Lesson: God makes tools
available to us and we can choose to use them or ignore
them. Lesson: Tools are designed to improve our ability to
complete the job at hand. The true value of the tool can
only be seen AFTER it has been used.

The first thing that came to mind was that the garden did
not look at all like I had planned it. Instead of neat
rows of healthy vegetables, the plants could scarcely be
seen among the weeds. I have had good-looking gardens
before so I know one when I see one and mine definitely did
not qualify. My busy schedule had kept me from two
important tasks, weeding and watering and it showed. In
addition, I thought I would have loads of tomatoes, but
instead I had loads of beans. Lesson : God’s plan is not
always in line with my plan. I made a note to tell God to
get His act together. But the fact remained, in spite of
the weeds, God had produced a crop.

As I looked at each plant I noticed that every plant had at
least one bean pod and some had 16-17 pods, each with many
seeds. I was struck by the thought that I had only planted
two $.98 packages of seeds that could have come from just a
single plant. The prolific crop was way more than I
expected. I could see how the scripture “30, 60 and a
hundredfold” could be true. Lesson: Want a small crop,
plant only a few seeds, want a larger crop, plant a lot of
seeds. Don’t plant any seeds, then don’t expect a crop.
The Lord whispered in my mind: “Everyone wants to win the
lottery, but only those who bought a ticket even have a
chance.”

As I harvested the beans I noticed that some of them were
already too dry for eating and would only be good for seed
for a second crop this season or a new crop nest season.
Lesson: Some beans are just meant for seed for the next
crop.

When I finished harvesting the beans I was hot and sweaty
and I had 4 big batches, one dry for seed and three ready
for eating. I later cooked 1/3rd of one of the batches and
had leftovers for another meal. They were sweet and
succulent, but the lesson was that they all came from a few
fertile seeds PLUS work. Lesson 4: Effort had been required
to plant the beans and effort was required to harvest the
beans. They did not jump into the ground by themselves and
they certainly did not jump into the harvesting basket by
themselves either. I made a note to ask God why all beans
were not jumping beans like the Mexican ones so they could
jump into the ground and later into my basket.

So, I left the garden with a slightly different perspective
about farming and I had an idea of why God had wanted me
out there. It wasn’t about beans at all, but about how UPC
had worked for me. The same beany lessons could be applied
to my UPC business. The success I now enjoy is due to the
fact that I listened, trusted what I heard, and was
obedient. I invested in the proper tools (Website Builder,
Domain name), I planted and continue to plant seeds
(piquing interest, registering affiliates) and I recognize
that it takes effort over a long period of time to produce
results. I am certainly not the best farmer, and I am not
the best at building UPC, but I know that I know that I
know that anyone that WANTS fresh vegetables can have them
by doing just what I did and anyone that WANTS the freedom
that UPC allows me to enjoy can have it, just by doing just
what I did. ~~ Bob Cline