Weekend Conversations

This past weekend was spent in Freeman, South Dakota. Farming and cattle are big in that area and I had a chance to talk with a few farmers.

Though there are fewer people around in rural South Dakota than in more urban areas, keeping the peace isn't easy. Neighbors who don't cut down the thistles on their property (whose seed then blows into adjacent pastures and makes the hours of chopping less worth while), or neighbors who don't pay attention to where their drainage ditches are letting out, or the gossip that can ruin a small town family in ways that city-dwellers just don't understand - these are big problems that strain rural areas.

I asked a few locals what "Shalom" means for a farmer.

The role of forgiveness came up as I talked with one farmer's wife. We usually have a chance to offer our friendship and bring peace to a relationship before it gets going and start out on good terms. All to often though I am lazy and slow at getting out and meeting my neighbors. It's only when I've offended them or they have offended me that I finally go over and ask them to stop doing what they are doing - not really the best way to make friends.

If this is the case and there aren't enough good memories of happy times together to excuse the annoying behavior or offset the confrontation, then our words of disagreement might seem judging and be taken offensively unless we've got great tact. This conflict can and often does lead to the need for forgiveness if we want to make 'peace' at that point.

This is all to say that through the conversation with the farmer's wife I'm realizing the need to introduce and befriend my neighbors before I have a chance to let them become my enemies. I can see this as being easier in rural areas than in urban settings. It takes time and energy to plan and meet with people and really get to know them - something that might be done easier with 12 neighbors within the square mile rather than 50 people in the apartment building.

A farmer I asked the same question (What does Shalom mean to a farmer?) immediately drew a line between people and the land. "It means having peace with the land." I asked him to explain a little more and he talked about the need to come to terms with not being in control and realizing that not every year will be a bumper crop. A hail storm that passes over before letting down it's payload or an inch of rain at just the right time during the hot summer can make or break the crop yield in ways many of us who have not been on the farm don't understand. He talked about the cycle of seasons that one needs to understand and respect - each necessary for the process of life to continue.

I was interested to hear about this sort of peace that wasn't so much between people as it was between one person and an object or a thing (the Earth). I wondered whether Jesus' teachings (which I almost always think of as in reference to interpersonal conflict) can be applied to something like this. As we talked together about it we came to the conclusion that Jesus' teachings often pointed out the importance of respecting each other and so when applied to a relationship with "the Land," we considered stewardship, creation care, and the year of Jubilee.

The conversations this weekend were thought provoking and I'm honored for the responses and the time taken to answer my question. As I consider the option of taking over our family farm in Iowa I will continue to ask myself what it means to respect the land and live in shalom with it.

Mark