Delighting in God through His Works and His Word
Okay, storytime: around the middle of August I was feeling frustrated by my inability to get focused and do the things I said I wanted to do. So I came up with a plan for a reset - I had some big picture goals for the last four months of the year, but I also chose to do a social media fast for the first week of September.
On what I thought was a completely unrelated note, I ended up leading my Bible study group through Psalm 19 on August 31st. So as I started this reset week, Psalm 19 was fresh in my mind.
I had chosen that Psalm because I love the way it swings from creation to God’s Word; saying the same thing, just in two different ways. The first part talks about seeing and delighting in the glory of God through His creation. The second part transitions to seeing and delighting in the glory of God through His word. It is all revelation of who God is, and it’s all meant to spark delight in Him, conviction over our sin, and ultimately trust in His grace and forgiveness.
And over the next few days as I stepped back from media and pressed deeper into God’s Word, He opened my eyes to some things I had forgotten about how important it is to delight in His Word. And how much I love sharing and teaching that, both in person and online.
But not only did I get a clearer vision of my message, I also got a clearer vision on my target audience.
To back up another month or so, a friend had asked me if there were many Christians in ag. And it was a little hard to answer. Because on the surface, yes. I think it’s safe to say that rural America is probably one of the most majority Christian demographics in America, maybe the world.
However. There are some things that are a big part of the identity of rural America that I don’t think are completely in line with the message of the gospel, or where we’ve simply forgotten that the gospel applies.
Just one example I’ve been thinking about a lot is rest. Farmers and ranchers work long hours and are often quite proud of that. But the Bible tells us over and over again to rest - not just for pragmatic reasons, not as a legalistic box to check - but as a reminder of the deeper truth that we are not God. Stopping to rest even when it’s a busy season reminds us that it’s not all up to us, and I think it’s something we could all do better to remember.
I have so many more examples, but the point is that I want to share the gospel with the ag and rural community. Not primarily for those who have never heard the gospel; for those who already know the basics but might need some guidance in seeing how it applies to every part of life.
To go back to what I shared about Psalm 19 a few paragraphs ago, I want to help people in ag delight in God through His works and His Word. We are face to face with the beauty of creation every day, but it’s so easy to lose sight of that in the day-to-day struggle with nature. And while some form of Christian faith is very prevalent among farmers and ranchers, the mental health statistics indicate that there is a desperate need for us to dive deeper into the joy and peace found in God’s Word.
It’s been over a month since that week where I hit reset and realized this vision for what I want to do, and it’s taken me this long to even write a post about it. Part of it is definitely fear, because I feel convicted to touch on some pretty hard topics, and my instinct is to avoid hard topics. Part of it is simply because it’s been extra busy around here for a few weeks. And part of it is intentional - I still have some other things to finish up before getting really focused on my online content in November.
And while my goal is to shift my focus to sharing how the gospel applies to the farming and ranching lifestyle, the gospel is for everyone. I pray that no matter what your profession, you can find something here that will encourage you to delight in God through His works and His Word.