Growing spuds in upstate New York

We stopped to talk to some neighbors. The nicest couple. They were planting potatoes, using an old-fashioned planter. The husband had to put each seed potato in a slot, so they’d drop into the ground with synchronized precision. Well, some precision at least, and it beat planting by hand, as they both remembered doing from the old days.

The evening was calm. The weather was inviting. Our conversation led to a featured newspaper article that I wrote.

They plant one acre of potatoes each year and share them with friends and family.

I can appreciate the intimate sharing. I also can remember my dad, who farmed hundreds of acres of potatoes. My sisters and brothers and I would cut the seed potatoes before planting with a large 6-row planter. Then we’d worked on the potato harvester, pulling weeds out of the freshly dug potatoes moving along on a belt onto a truck.

The magnitude of Dad’s operation seemed to lose any intimacy, but thousands upon thousands of more people were fed compared to our neighbors farming.

Neither method is right or wrong.

We can move forward in our spiritual journey with the method that speaks to us, that we can relate to and know it’s productive when it does touch others. Our smiles can feed other people’s famished hearts.

Matthew 9

^“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (NIV)