GINNY VROBLESKY|GUEST

He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him. Psalm 126:6 (NIV)

I remember sitting at my computer quietly weeping. I had been unemployed for quite a while. Job hunting has always been one of the hardest things in my life. I felt as though I did not fit anywhere. I had prayed, asking God for help, when suddenly, the phone rang. It was someone I had never met calling from a different state. He was involved in campus ministry and was planning to use some work that I had done years before. I was amazed and touched that God had him call just when I needed some encouragement. But the best was yet to come. He also sent me an email which included some verses from Psalm 126. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with him.

Sowing while Weeping

At first, I thought those verses applied to persevering when life seemed to be hard. Send out those resumes and keep knocking on doors. But as I have studied this psalm, I have realized that much more is involved. The song is about people who have returned from exile to the longed-for land of promise. In the beginning, they could not believe what had happened: We were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter. They saw what the Lord had done for them. They were where God had led them. Even though I was looking for a new job, I too was where God had led me.

But then reality hit the exiles. They had to do the hard work of making the land fruitful again. Perhaps they wept as they sowed because of the devastation of the land and all they had lost. Perhaps, like me, they thought that their efforts were fruitless. Or that life should have been smooth if they were doing what they believed God had for them to do. The land of promise was still a land of challenges.

Their prayer became Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the streams in the Negev (or desert). They longed for God to give them what they needed, to create a fruitful life for them in a place where it was not expected- a desert, or right in their tough spot. Then they went forth to sow their seeds. Nature requires a set time between seeds and harvest. Like many events in my life, the time between sowing and reaping has seemed longer than I would have wanted. I would have loved for the phone call to have been a quick solution. But instead, God reminded me that He knew where I was and that the experience of weeping and sowing was universal.

Trusting God in New Places

This incident happened years ago but the lessons recently reverberated through my life again. My dad died last month. For years I have been his caregiver, now everything has changed. Parents who have sent their children off to college, or anyone who has lost a loved one can relate to the sense of entering a new territory. We grieve for the past even if we know that we are exactly where God has placed us. We recognize the great things He has done for us and are thankful. But we still may weep, even as we begin to take steps forward to build a new life in a new reality. A small voice has been whispering in my heart: “I am who I said I am and I can do what I have said I will do.” I suspect these words are based on Exodus 3:14 where God tells Moses “I AM WHO I AM,” and Number 23:19: “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it?” Scripture is full of God’s promise of guidance, faithfulness, and intense care. So we venture out, taking the steps to make the changes we need to make and move forward day by day. We can weep while we sow our seeds. But we can assure our hearts that the Lord of the harvest will fulfill His word, and we will see the new life He causes to spring forth from the tiny seeds we plant.

Oh, Lord, Isaiah 55:8-13 are wonderful verses for those of us sowing seeds and weeping. Remember how You say that Your thoughts are not ours, but Your Word accomplishes what You set out to do. You even provide seeds to the sower, and You promise that instead of the thorns we think are in our future, fruitful trees will spring up. What You do in the lives of those of us who sow in tears will be a memorial to You. Please give us the courage to take You at Your Word, to keep going until we can be like the people in this psalm: having arms full of fruit of our following hard after You.

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