Thoughts on Christian Living Book #2 by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

GOD’S SHARECROPPER

In 1939, Hollywood produced a box office bonanza with the all-time classic movie, GONE WITH THE WIND. It depicts a labor intensive way of life forever gone. Of course, there are many things and ways that have fallen to the chapters of history with the vaunted progress of the 20th Century. I write briefly about one of them.

Over half a century ago, my pastoral ministry was initiated in the cotton and bean fields of northeast Arkansas. Many folks in the area were known as sharecroppers. Like the aforementioned movie, this, too, is a way of life largely gone with the wind.

Sharecroppers lived in someone else’s house on someone else’s land. In varying agreements, they worked the land for the land owner, and shared a percentage of the crops produced. It was not much of a way to get ahead in life, but it was a way to sustain life. Most of the houses provided were substandard, and largely without indoor plumbing. My wife and I spent one memorable winter night with a family in that environment. To stay warm, we slept under so many quilts that it was virtually impossible to turn over. However, though poor, the people were sweet, kind and loving, and they loved the Lord. It was such a joy to be considered their pastor although a neophyte in every sense of the word.

Years have come and gone, and I am, as they were, a sharecropper. But, the sharecropping is being accomplished in an agreement with God, the true land owner. Paul taught in I Cor. 3:9, “For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.” We plant and water, but He gives the increase. It is He who has given us this laboring ministry of reconciliation, and He teaches us all in Psalm 126:6, “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

Sometimes, due to weather or pestilence, crops might fail, leaving the literal sharecropper in dire straits financially. But one may be sure that sharecropping with God brings a guaranteed successful harvest to the rejoicing of everyone involved. Since all are tenants and not owners, they are sharecropping for someone. But soon the window of time for sharecropping on this terrestrial ball will also pass away; it is but for a season. Consequently, it is so very important with whom you partner in the sharecropping venture of life. FOR THOUGHT: For whom are you sharecropping? Did you know that sharecropping for God is the most lucrative labor one could possibly have? He promises not only care in this life, but a reward of a hundredfold at reckoning day. Where can you beat that?

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