I was driving down M-20 and there it was…much to my surprise…a sign that read “Tractor Show”. Now I must admit that I had seen signs like that before, and I have even heard people talk about Tractor shows all of my life, but the significance of that concept had never really sunk in until that fateful day. I was somewhat listening to a conversation that my wife and son were having until I finally had to just break in and say what I was thinking. “Tractor Show, What a ridiculous concept”, I offered much to their surprise. My son, who thinks that he is smarter than me…and might be right, inquired as to why a tractor show was ridiculous, so I told him, and he debated with me sharply, but that’s not the point. I believe there is something in this idea of Tractor shows for us Christians to learn from. “What is it”, you ask? I’ll tell you!
Let me begin by sharing with you my vision of a Tractor. I grew up with tractors; in fact almost everyone in my neighborhood had one. It was an essential piece of equipment in our neck of the woods in lower eastern Michigan. People used them for different reasons, such as the neighbor across the street who used his small Farmall to cultivate his garden, plow his snow, mow the back field with a brush hog attachment, and occasionally to occupy his time as he would take the whole tractor apart and put it back together just for fun. (He was an engineer) Then there was my cousin up the road who had one of the bigger tractors in the neighborhood, and even though his almost new Massey Ferguson was a diesel, had power steering, and was much newer than my dad’s tractor, he used it for many of the same purposes, such as mowing, raking, and bailing hay, hauling a manure spreader to clean up after his cows, Plowing and disking fields so that they could be planted, and pulling the occasional car out of the ditch in the winter time. My dad’s tractor was used for all of the above uses, (with the exception of hauling horse manure instead of cow manure…but you probably didn’t need to know that) but was not anywhere near as efficient at it as my cousin’s. Dad’s old Allis Chalmers was from the 50’s and it looked like it. There were odd pieces and parts sticking out here and there, where retrofits had been made due to the lack of parts for that model, and it almost never started when you needed it to. Jump starting it was a regular exercise in the summer months and we would often leave it idling during work breaks just so that we would be sure that it would run when we needed it. It was loud, hard to shift, hard to start, and the breaks only worked sometimes, and yet my dad got a lifetime worth of work out of that old beast. It hauled bailers, wagons, manure spreaders, plows, disks, hayrides, and anything else we needed it to and was an essential piece of farm equipment, all while looking as if it belonged in the junk yard, which brings me (finally) to my point. Tractors aren’t meant for Shows!!!
The very idea that anybody would want to “show” a tractor is ridiculous! Tractors are meant for work, for function, not for showing off. The very design of a tractor speaks to this. They aren’t sleek or aerodynamic, and their humongous, deep treaded wheels make it impossible for them to look refined or domesticated. Tractors are designed for work, and to clean up a tractor and try to make it “show” material is to violate the very reason that it was created. Tractors should not be clean or have perfect paint jobs, they should be dirty from pulling things through the earth, and they should be scratched up and weathered from being out in the field interacting with other heavy machinery. Their tires should be worn with scars of stubborn rocks, sticks, and brush that it had to plow through to get the job done. They should look used.
The reason that this struck me so hard as I saw that sign is that it reminded me that we too are made for a purpose, and it was not to put on a show. We too should bear the marks of being used by our Lord and Savior for hard work in this world. We were not designed to look pretty, or to somehow avoid the scars and mileage that life brings, in fact, we should wear our scars like a badge and be proud of the fact that we were able to tackle tough problems with the help of our heavenly father, and continue to work until He comes, no matter how old, worn, or retrofitted we may seem. The apostle Paul says throughout the New Testament that he has been “poured out”, in other words “used up”, in his service to his God. He never stopped working for the kingdom, and look at Jesus himself and the scars that he bore for us. If we follow Christ, what makes us think that we will escape without some scars of our own? I’m not proposing that we allow our selves to look unseemly on purpose, or that we shouldn’t take care of ourselves. My dad put a lot of time into maintaining that old tractor to keep it good and strong so that it could do the job, and we too need to maintain ourselves physically, mentally, intellectually, and spiritually so that we can work with the utmost efficiency for the kingdom. What I AM saying is that there should never come a day when the people of God stop working and start showing. Our purpose is to work until Jesus comes, and that is exactly what I intend to do.
By the way, my dad did get a newer tractor a few years ago, but wouldn’t you know that old Allis is still working around the farm to this day, as the backup tractor. Would that I would have as long a career for the Lord as that old tractor has had for my dad.
You are loved,
PJ