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UPC Newsletters>
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 
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