Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 139 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.

Life is Like Being a Farmer

Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 139 of our Trek. Yesterday we searched for 11 mile-markers to create a living legacy. Today and for the next several days, we will be digging up nuggets of wisdom that I have learned from Jim Rohn, one of my virtual mentors, and applying Wisdom-Trek logic to these nuggets that we discover. If you have any of your own observations, comments, or questions as we explore these nuggets of wisdom, please share them on the comment section of our daily journal pages.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at Home2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. We are heading to Marietta for the weekend to start the leaf harvest and share in our grandson Gideon’s 6th birthday celebration, but we will head back late on Sunday since we have some commitments in Charlotte this next week. And then, we will head back to Marietta at the end of next week and celebrate Dad’s 85th birthday.  It is a lot of traveling, but we are so thankful that we are able to do so. 

We also have a busy day on our Trek today, so let’s head onto the trail as we are in search of that hidden treasure called wisdom. This treasure is readily available, but few seek for it as if seeking for gold, silver, or precious jewels. If we desire to be joyful, we must seek for wisdom as Proverbs 3:13-15 tells us,

Joyful is the person who finds wisdom,

the one who gains understanding.

For wisdom is more profitable than silver,

and her wages are better than gold.

Wisdom is more precious than rubies;

nothing you desire can compare with her.

Along our trail today, we once again come across an overlook and down in the valley we see the farmers busy at the harvest.  This scene reminds me of how wise it would be if we all would think like a farmer.

Thinking Like a Farmer

One of the difficulties we face in our industrialized and technology driven age is the fact we've lost our sense of seasons. Unlike the farmer whose priorities change with the seasons, we have become impervious to the natural rhythm of life. As a result, we have our priorities out of balance. Let me illustrate what I mean:

For a farmer, springtime is his most active time. It's then when he must work around the clock, rising before the sun and still toiling at the stroke of midnight. He must keep his equipment running at full capacity because he has but a small window of time for the planting of his crop. Eventually winter comes when there is less for him to do to keep him busy.

Every farmer knows that you can't sow and reap on the same day. There is a timetable for your harvest that requires both working and waiting. Patience is a small price to pay for what you will receive.

There is a lesson here. Learn to use the seasons of life. Decide when to pour it on and when to ease back, when to take advantage and when to let things ride. It's easy to keep working 10-12 hour days, year in and year out, and lose a natural sense of priorities and cycles. Don't let one year blend into another in a seemingly endless parade of tasks and responsibilities. Keep your eye on your own seasons, lest you lose sight of value and substance.

Proverbs 23:3-5 encourages us to be careful of the continuous pursuit of wealth,

Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich.

Be wise enough to know when to quit.

In the blink of an eye wealth disappears,

for it will sprout wings

and fly away like an eagle.

As we consider thinking like a farmer, we must realize that most of us will not be farming full time.