Hands to the Plow

Photo By twoblueday gerry

When I was a kid, my Grandfather used to take me out to the country where he owns three acres of land. Pop planted a garden there almost every year. He used a motorized tiller to break up the ground to make it easier to plant the seed. I would watch him wrestle the steel beast and plow perfectly straight rows. Pop would place a focal point at the end of each row and would set his gaze on that focal point to make the rows straight. As I watched him, I remember thinking that one day I would be a strong man who would know how to plow a straight row with a tiller. I also remember when that day came. Pop taught me how to plow. He handed me the tiller and pointed out ahead to the goal. The steel beast shook me and I wrestled with it toward the row’s end. At one point, I looked back and the tiller turned and bucked and I had to wrestle it back to its place, making a crooked row and a mess out of the garden. Eventually, through the years, practice made perfect and the rows became straight and perfect.

Granddad also taught me who Jesus is. I saw Jesus in Pop way before I ever understood a single sermon this Baptist preacher ever preached. Pop lives a life committed to following the Lord. I have learned what it means to follow Jesus through watching Pop keep his eyes on Him. As it turns out, living for Christ and plowing have a lot in common. As Jesus says, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God (Luke 9:62).” When Pop put his hand to the plow, he never looked back. With Jesus as his focus, Pop’s rows have been straight through the field of life and he has shown many The Way.

Perfect Rows

(Luke 9:62)

Grandpa taught me

How to plow

In straight rows

Machine in hand

Eyes in front of me

Tilling the land

Perfectly plowed rows

Where my gaze is set,

My body goes

Eternity displays its fertile fields

And all that eternity knows

From heel dented mounds

And the sprinkling of seed

Spring forth growth and abundance

Of every plant, from every breed

No more lacking, no more need

Walking the straight rows

Hands running through the green

Into eternity as eternity is seen

My eyes set out before me

My hand to the plow

Never looking back

Gazing at Jesus now

Straight perfect rows

Into eternity

The way my Grandfather chose

My gaze toward my savior

Just like he taught me

To look to the cross and to eternity

© 2010, Robbie Pruitt

http://www.robbiepruitt.com/

“And Jesus said unto him, ‘No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.’” –Luke 9:62

Rubble

Photo above courtesy of Ron Holt, 2010

As of October 2010, 2% of the rubble has been removed from Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake that crumbled that country. Observing the effects of this reality, the current state of Haiti, can make one feel helplessness and despair. Looking out over the vast devastation, the conditions of poverty, and the destruction is profound, sobering, and leveling. There is so much need and brokenness.

When my wife Irene and I were in Haiti recently, I wanted to fix the things that I saw. I am “a fixer” by nature. As I looked out over the landscape, the sinking feeling in my gut was a feeling of helplessness and despair. “There is just no fixing this.” I thought to myself. Just as I was thinking this, I felt as if God were speaking to me, “That’s right, you cannot fix this. You cannot even fix yourself. I can fix this. I will fix this. You cannot, but I can. You are not their saviour, you can’t be. You cannot even save yourself, because you are in the same condition, but I can. I can renew and restore Haiti and I can renew and restore you too!” This was a moving and powerful word from the Lord for me.

We live in a fallen and sin riddled world that is filled with destruction and disrepair. We live in a world that is in a constant state of decay. Our world is groaning (Romans 8:22).

The following poem, “Rubble,” compares the human heart condition, the result of sin’s rampant rule, with Haiti’s brokenness and destruction, do to the fallen world we live in and the magnitude of sin’s consequences throughout history.

It is God that pardons, saves, restores, renews, and rescues. God is at work in His creation despite of sin and evil in the world, and it is God who will make all things new, including Haiti, and including the Haiti like destruction and devastation that is in me and you.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” –Jeremiah 17:9

Photo above courtesy of Ron Holt, 2010

Rubble
(Jeremiah 17:9)

I got rubble . . .

I got rubble

Down inside of me

Fists full of rubble

Heart full of rubble

Broken heart and trouble

I got torn canvas

Tarp shredded

And days dreaded

I got stench filled polluted air

Charcoal fire burning

And no loving care . . .

Shame and a blank stare

I got worn out clothes

Nowhere to go

Where my next meal comes from

. . . I don’t know

I got dusty shoes

No good news

So far faded to black

Can’t see the blues

I got crowded streets

Shredded sheets

And no one to meet

I got polluted water in my veins

Spotted and soiled and stains

I got carcasses and death and remains

Viruses of all strains

I got a Haiti as my heart

Because I played my part

I am sin’s destruction and death

Gasping for life and breath

I am shattered destruction

Condemned collapsed building

Nothing to offer and nothing to bring

Soiled and dirty, never clean

I am ruins and decay

Broken and in disarray

Dashed hopes and dismay

I am hurricane torn

Weathered and worn

I am exploited lands

And caught with red hands

I am earth quake rattled

Crushed and tattered

Crying out . . . smattered

I am rubble

I am rubble in streets

Crashes nearly avoided

And skipped heart beats

Aftershocks and broken infrastructure

Spilled out in rupture

I am muddied murky waters

And close dilapidated quarters

I am refuse and abuse

Left out alone and cut loose

I am resource depleted

Promises never delivered . . . defeated

Broken glass on the shore

Never having enough

And always wanting more

I am helpless and despair

No health care

I am a world apart unnoticed

Out of sight, out of mind, unaware

On my own, I am unfed, full of dread,

And left for dead

I am Haiti

There is no life independently

No life on my own you see

I am wearing down and washing into eternity

Erosion . . . corrosion . . . implosion . . .

I got rubble

I got rubble breaking down to ashes and dust

Dust storms and winds gust

I got Haiti blowing through me

My destruction before me

Endlessly . . . effortlessly . . .

Carelessly . . . recklessly . . .

© 2010, Robbie Pruitt

Psalm 107:18-22

“They draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their distresses. He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.”

Revelation 21:5-7

“And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.”