We have come to a time of harvest and so reaping is in season. As the fields of grain around us are gathered in, so Paul worked the fields in Asia, Greece, and Rome. Likewise, you work the fields God has assigned to you. When you students hit the books and write the papers, you’re working fields. When you moms criss cross our town in mini vans so many times in a day that the GPS locator gets tired, you’re working fields. When you men go to work in your vocations dealing with markets, people, institutions, or front end loaders, you are working fields.

As you do so, make sure that you do not begrudge the labor. The fields are white and laborers are few. But it is also true that the fields are white and the laborers are grumpy. Paul says ministers who labor that way don’t do any good to their flock no matter how solid the counsel and teaching (Hebrews 13:17). And the same holds true for your good works. They must be strengthened by the happiness of another. They must be done in the joy of the Lord.