A Job Too Few Want
Good Morning Friends,
In anticipation of Thanksgiving in the Park in Immokalee, I began to meditate more intensely on the needs of the farm workers. Things are changing. The advertisements in the Naples Daily News for farm laborers continue. The abuses in the fields have gone on for years but things I think conditions are getting better. Still fewer people are engaging in this hard labor. College students once upon a time tried their hand at farm labor but the reality is they just do not keep up with migrants. It is hard work…really hard work and sometimes abusive. I remember one story about a group of workers refusing to work for one crew leader who was especially violent. When it came time to get on the buses to go to the fields, they just refused to go on his and it ruined his entire season. Now robots may be the future to fill A Job Too Few Want.
Scripture: I am a stranger in the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me.
Psalm 119:19 NASB
Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”
Matthew 9:37 (NIV)
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NRSV)
Message: The law of supply and demand tells me that food prices are going up again. The majority of the business owners in the industry say they can’t find enough workers to fill all their crop-harvesting related jobs. Farmers are apparently having trouble due in part to government crackdowns on illegal immigration and undocumented workers. The result is that there is a shortage of workers willing to work at these farm jobs. Classified advertisements abound but the takers are few. Other counties have u-pick arrangements but not Collier. I wonder why. It is really strange. It is as if we do not fit in. Frankly the whole world can be a strange place. Amazingly when I turn to scripture I see at least part of an answer provided by David. It appears that by adapting our lives to the commandments of the Lord we begin to fit in to the true structure of the world’s design. Here we become more human. Friends, if one wants to feel at home, then one needs to follow the patterns God has ordained. It is most interesting that migrants are not sending money back to Mexico like they used to. Maybe things are changing as to where people consider home.
Pray we see our way home. Pray we follow the instructions of the God of all the earth. Pray we rejoice in the cornucopia of food we have ready to be picked. Pray we rejoice in the fruit of the Spirit. Pray we are willing to work for the Kingdom to come. Pray we never settle for automatons to disciple us…to apprentice us even though robots may in due course pick our fruits.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 