Plowing of the Soul

My father Norman Dow demonstrating use
of a walking plow at a local plowing match.

The 100^th International Plowing Match happening nearby in Walton has captured the attention of many in our area this month. I have memories of attending the IPM as a child along with our farming family – some of those memories muddier than others! My father in his nursing home room has proudly on display a trophy he won 70 years ago in the 1947 IPM as a young farmer starting out post-war at the age of 27. (That was with horses.) And about 40 years ago, in 1987 as a young pastor starting out on St. Joseph Island, I was privileged to place first (with a tractor) at a local plowing match. What can I say – it was a small class!

Plowing is a skill that involves three aspects that have significance in the spiritual domain. It is an inversion of the soil. It requires careful regulation of depth. And prize-winning plowing necessitates maintaining a painfully straight direction.

First, plowing is fundamentally an inversion of the soil, turning it upside-down so the nutrients that have sunk to lower depths, perhaps leached down by rainfall, are brought back up to the surface where the next crop of plants can use them. This action of inverting the soil also helps aerate it and loosen its texture, making it easier for roots to penetrate.

In the spiritual realm, plowing corresponds to repentance and confession of sin. Repentance is an upheaval, an about-turn in our spiritual orientation. About 600 B.C. Jeremiah prophesied to the people of Jerusalem and Judah, “Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.” (Jer.4:3) He was not talking about agriculture! Context shows God was calling people to do an about-face, to return to Him and abandon the detestable idols they had been worshipping. The Lord was calling them to a spiritual revolution, to circumcise their hearts and turn from their evil ways (v.4).

Similarly, when Jesus began His earthly ministry, His opening words were a call for people to invert themselves in terms of outlook and commitment. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) What infertile ‘hardpan’, prejudices, and indifference have we allowed to creep into our lives?

Second, plowing requires careful setting of the equipment’s depth of cut. Usually a competitor will make some practice strokes on a nearby patch of ground to set the plow before beginning on the official plot. Set it too shallow and the furrows won’t be wide enough; set it too deep and you may bury the plow!

Spiritually, genuine repentance leads to the practice of confession. Jesus emphasized the importance of confession by anchoring it squarely at the heart of The Lord’s Prayer. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12) Or as many of us were taught, “Forgive us our trespasses...” Coming before a holy infinitely pure and righteous God, we are reminded of our impurity, the many ways we have fallen short.

Our trashy behaviour. One four-year-old boy misheard the Lord’s Prayer, and so came to recite his own slightly modified version: “And forgive us our trash-baskets, as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets.” Sin does treat others in trashy manner, doesn’t it? Paul urged the church, “Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Colossians 3:13)

Repentance means we go into sufficient depth about our sin during our prayer of confession to ‘make it real’. No vague skimming the surface! Thomas Watson observed, “A child of God will confess sin in particular; an unsound Christian will confess sin by wholesale – he will acknowledge that he is a sinner in general.”

Plowing of the soul involves inversion; requires depth; and, third, it involves going straight. A championship plower picks a distant object on the horizon and keeps their tractor pointed at it so their furrows end up arrow-straight, and absolutely parallel to one another. It could spell catastrophe to look back too often and let the tractor begin to swerve even a hair. Jesus alluded to the recognized need for straightness in plowing when He said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

Spiritually speaking, when it comes to the discipline of repentance and confession, the distant point of reference on the horizon has to be God, rather than any compelling goal the world may offer. Confession fundamentally is not just being sorry for the consequences when I’ve messed up: true confession is to agree with God’s appraisal of the evilness and wickedness of my sin – the bankruptcy of my very nature, which inclines to do wrong all too readily.

Hosea about 700 B.C. prophesied to the northern kingdom of Israel about how their actions were off-kilter compared to God’s holy standards. “I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground. Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.” (Hosea 10:11f) It is not enough just to be uprooting and plowing: we need to actively seek the Lord in order to understand His guidance for how to live each day, to discover His direction for righteousness. The Holy Spirit through the inspired writing of the Bible is our roadmap providing necessary direction and orientation to ‘true north’.

This past Sunday at the Christian Reformed Church in Blyth, a student from the Teen Challenge Farm near London shared a confession relating to a painful uprooting in his life. A First Responder, he was deeply affected when a female victim of a car crash died in his arms. Developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, he lost his job, turned to alcohol to numb the pain, and eventually was divorced by his wife. When he bottomed out, he acknowledged his addiction and entered the program at Teen Challenge. He graduates later this month and was happy to report he has been able to reconcile with his wife! But apart from repentance and the Lord’s re-direction, the story might have had an outcome that was much more grim.

So, keep plowing with eternal perspective! Undertake the moral upheaval of repentance. Go deep in your confession – don’t just skim the surface. And develop spiritual insight through learning God’s ways in order to stay heaven-focused and not swerve from His righteous leading.