Harvest

'For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life' Gal.6:8 (NASB)

For the past few months this passage has been heavy on my brain, there are many reasons why I love it. It is contextually independant, and represents what I believe to be some biblical fundamentals. To 'sow from the flesh' perfectly encompasses all things that are self-driven, self-pleasing. The teachings of the book, the bare rudiments, revolve primarily around love, and selflessness. The two of which are merely seperable by the latter's adjective quality. There's something else I believe to be intrinsic biblical doctrine, and that is community. From a secular vantage point the former part of the aforementioned passage undoubtedly holds water, but it's words like 'spirit' and 'eternal life' that are cause for timidity. The western hemisphere is stuck in this mindset that they can accomplish things on their own. The growth of independance is becoming the death of community. I moved out on my own at eighteen years of age because I live in a society that permitted me to do so. I can work, cook, exist, support my primitive needs, but I very strongly believe community outweighs all of these things. I really think communal mindsets are inherently positive, and an individualistic driven society is imminent doom. The shift towards individulism, by it's very meaning diminishes your amount of dependants, and dependance. The less we rely on others, the more we rely on ourselves. Our environment becomes one that is very easy to manipulate directly. Our own environment is eventually dictated by our own decisions, rather than a decision with collective input. When we dictate our own life with only ourselves in mind, we start to act selfishly, according the desires of the flesh. Seeds sown of the flesh reap corruption. Seeds sown of the spirit reap eternal life.

Air, food, water, shelter. These are the most stripped-down, primitive life sources. Of these sources, food and shelter are humanly pliable. Water's from the ocean, air's from the atmosphere, but food and shelter require human intervention (food is debatable, but to supply the world's needs....). I revere farming and carpentry as the most honorable of trades. Cultivating the land, sowing, reaping, constructing. Harvest. The nobility of farming and carpentry are endlessly spoken of in the book, metaphorically and literally. Being only the second generation of both a farmer and a carpenter, I hold an extruciatingly heavy self-guilt for having little to no interest in pursuing either. The humility, the essential notion of these trades and their parallel to the book form the very grassroots of my faith. Observing my family's calloused hands coincide with obedient hearts is amazing. Yet I wish not to farm, or build?? How is this so?? I view myself as the embodiment of the aforementioned individualist thinking for my generation/family. I've battled with the contradiction of influences between trade and faith. One has shaped the other, yet they are autonomous. That being said, I'm glad I chose the latter to hang on to....