When Strength Fails
I grew up on the far eastern edge of the Ozark Mountains, on the northern side of the Arkansas/Missouri border, in the little community of Poynor. The area gives whole new meaning to the phrase “the middle of nowhere.” It’s so small that I’m not quite sure it is even classified as a town. The nearest town is Doniphan, Missouri, which is about ten miles away.
The farm I lived on was owned by my grandparents. One of my earliest recollections is working in our garden with my parents and three siblings when I was about eight or nine years old. Our family was faced with a unique situation. We didn’t garden for pleasure or recreation; we gardened to survive.
In the mid-70’s times were tough. My dad had just returned from Vietnam and couldn’t find a good job. Our family of six lived in a two-bedroom 14 by 70 trailer on the property, without indoor facilities. In fact, we used an outhouse until I was ten years old.
The soil was very rocky on my grandparent’s small farm, and we often had to dig rocks out of the garden. We had to haul in dirt from the back side of the property just to have a decent garden. We would mound up that dirt in hills around the seed potatoes and water the plants regularly.
Potatoes just happened to be something we grew really well. We had loads and loads of potatoes, so many that we would store them underneath the trailer and my grandparent’s house for the winter months. For about three years straight we had fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato cakes, diced potatoes, french fries and just about any other kind of prepared potatoes you can imagine.
In the heat of the summer, we would harvest those potatoes. Wheelbarrows full of them. If you’ve ever done it, you know that you just can’t take a shovel and dig them up. You have to dig your hands down into the soil, right next to the plant stalk, to pull them up. You couldn’t really wear gloves because if you did the sense of touch was lost, and you could miss some of the vegetables under the dirt; so all of us would work carefully while digging them up.
To this day, I compare my current level of weariness to the way I felt as a child, after working in that garden. That usually makes me feel better about my situation. Working the potato patch was hard, and most of the time we were on our knees with our hands in the ground. By the time I was done with my little parcel of work, my back would hurt if I stood up straight.
I was a kid, so I got off easy. Long after I was through, my mom, dad, grandpa and grandma would keep on going. I can remember lying on the grass on the edge of the garden and falling to sleep, completely exhausted and filthy from head to toe. I slept well though, comforted by the sounds of their labor.
My strength did not match theirs, and they worked harder, faster, and much more efficiently than I did. I should have felt guilty when I was done and they kept on going. Instead, I felt comforted. There was a peace that came with the knowledge that the harvest wasn’t totally dependent upon me and my ability. Someone stronger than me had everything under control.
Even when my strength failed, the work continued.
There have been times in ministry when my strength has failed, when the work of the pastorate has been back-breaking and exhausting: times when I feel I have given everything to the work only to realize there is still a harvest in the field waiting to be gleaned, times when my best just isn’t good enough, and times when my failures exceed my successes.
In those times, I think of sunny days and potato patches. I think of the sounds of my family calling to each other, working in harmony to get the job done. And as I remember those days, I remind myself that I am a laborer in HIS field.
I am limited. I am weak. I am weary. I am worn.
But long after my strength fails, Jesus toils on.
Isaiah 40:28-31 NIV
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
My soul followeth hard after thee....Love one another with a pure heart fervently. 
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