Out in Eastern Montana is a little ranch called Sleepy Hollow. If you look at it now, it looks like a miniature ghost town, with old junk laying around, tottering buildings, and abandoned cars. But less than twenty years ago, Sleepy Hollow was a bustling little home. My mom spent her summers growing up on that farm. her parents had lived there. and before that, her grandparents. This summer, we walked around what remained of the place, her telling one memory after another.
"I remember painting that shed white."
"Those ice skates in the yard were Uncle Mark's."
"That ridge over there is the one where that my horse Sunshine almost took me over."
"I remember cleaning out those granaries on a super hot summer day, when the chaff would stick to you because you were so sweaty."
Where there once was laughter and hard work and memories there is now silence, rust, and mildew. My grandparents and my great-grandparents invested so much in this little plot of land which brought some temporary joy and employment, but what now? what in one hundred years?
When I look at my own life, I have to admit. most of my time is spent investing in the profits this world will yield.
In James 5, James uses the analogy of a farmer patiently waiting and investing in the coming yield.
"Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."
In other words, it pays off to invest yourself in what's coming!
Do what you do for the reward and the joy that's coming. You can work hard at school and be working for the Lord. You can use facebook and conversations to point to heaven. You can work hard at your job for the reward that Jesus gives and not for the paycheck at the end of the month.
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:16-18
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