Plow Your Patch

When I went to Young Harris College on a day long gone, I carried in my baggage a high school diploma and a call to preach.    I knew what to do with the high school diploma, but it took awhile to figure out the call to preach.  I do remember that the call to preach was like a written invitation to join the College Ministerial Association.  Besides meeting from time to time, I do not recall what we did.  But, before my two year stint at Young Harris was over, I had been chosen to be the Bishop of the Ministerial Association which is what the president of that campus organization was called.

 

One of my parishioners at the Talbotton Church often said I would make a Bishop some day, but I just told him I had already been elected Bishop so that was, therefore, an unnecessary election.  The truth is many a preacher has been ruined by ambitions and aspirations for a bigger pulpit, a higher steeple, or bigger political clout.  Regrettably, I have not always been immune to such temptations through the years.  One of the best pieces of advice I have received from an older clergy mentor was, "Plow your own patch."

 

"Plowing your own patch" speaks of contentment with where God has placed us.  It is not just a good word for preachers, but for anyone regardless of the "patch being plowed."  Many a life has been less than what it could be because the grass always seemed greener over the fence line.  Too many times we get so wrapped up in getting something we do not have that we miss out on what is in front of us as well as what we are seeking.  Contentment is not characterized as laziness, nor is it the route of the disappointed whiners.  Contentment is about trusting God to bless us where we are and allowing Him to bring into our lives the opportunities that He has planned for us.