The Gospel and the Plow

For my Missions in the 21st Century course I am doing a presentation of Agricultural Missions. I just read the following excerpt from a book on the topic and found it to be not only interesting, but also relevant to how I currently feel and my interest in missions.

I went to India having specialized in philosophy an hoping to be an evangelist. I ded up by being a missionary farmer. I have had friends tell me they could not see why I am interested in the things in which I am interested. They ask what plows, harrows, tractors, silos, threshing machines, and better cattle have to do with the evangelization of India. Bulletins upon the use of manure and silage are good, but what is their value as missionary tracts?

I am accused of having lost my first love and of having grown cold, of having become a materialist, and of having lost my aspirations, of being indifferent to spiritual and eternal things, of caring only for the things of time and sense, te things that shall pass away, that are not eternal.

I realize that I am living this life only once, that if I make a mistake with it, there is no chance to come back again and do the thing right. I understand that the Will of God is the supreme things for my life, the only thing that really matters. It is not whether I am a missionary that matters, or not a missionary, but wherever I live and whatever I do, God’s Will is first, the controlling factor the determines the whole of my life. Further, I am not afraid of His Will. Trying to obey it has led me to do some things I would not have done on my own initiative. But I have always found that His will has been infinitely larger and better than my own will for my life. When choosing my own course for myself I have made so many mistakes, missed the way so often, that I gladly turn over the guidance of my life to His Will and trust fully. Should I for any reason whatsoever fail to do His Will with my life, I should consider that the greatest possible tragedy. I am anxious to do His Will as soon as I see it. There is often great difficulty to know what His Will is.

Sam Higginbottom – “The Gospel and the Plow” - 1921