Smell The Roses

If we go to the Gospel of Mark, Chapter 6, two verses, verse 31 and 32:

Jesus said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while”. For there were many coming and going and they did not even have time to eat.”

Verse 32: “So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves.”

If there is one good thing that this lockdown has done - it has compelled us to rest, to sit still.

You know, I had a very dear friend, who farmed right next door to our farm and early in the morning, we used to have a chat across the fence, and the one day he said to me,
“Angus, you must take time out to smell the roses. You are working too hard and you are not resting enough.”

I want to ask you a question.

Have you had time to smell the roses?

You might be saying to me today, “Angus, I am tired of smelling the roses. I want to get back to work.”

Well, you see, that is a healthy place to be my dear friend because what happens is, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

You have heard that saying.

And what happens is, we become stale when we keep on keeping on.

The tell me that after the french revolution when they started to work the horses, in the old days, pulling the carriages, instead of six days and giving them a day’s rest, they would work them ten days because they were getting into the metric system and you know what happened?

The horses started falling down in the streets and dying from exhaustion.

The Lord has made us so that we can work six days and rest one day.

If we look at the Book of Leviticus, Chapter 25 and verse 3 , The Lord says, “Six years you shall sew your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard, and gather its fruit, but in the seventh year, there shall be a sabbath, a solemn rest for the land, a sabbath to the Lord.”

When I read that scripture as a young Christian, I said to The Lord, “If I have to rest the whole farm, one year after every six years, I will go bankrupt and I felt The Lord say, “Well, rest one-seventh of the farm, every year and after seven years the whole farm would have rested.’

And I started doing that and do you know, the part, the field that I rested, and I didn’t do anything to it - fallow means you do nothing, the weeds grew and I was taught in an agricultural college, one year’s seeds, seven years weeds. We were taught to hammer the field, keep ploughing it, and disking it. Don’t let any weeds come up.

And I left that seventh of that field and the weeds would grow six feet tall and then the worms would start working nicely in the soil and I would plough in all that green fertilizer and that would be the best field for me, after the rest.

I want to say to you that we need to rest.

When you rest, you get refreshed, you get new ideas, you get new opportunities.

So even as you leave your land fallow - I am talking to the farmers, the same thing applies to every aspect of our lives. You get rejuvenated.

So my dear friend, take time out.

Smell the roses and God is waiting for you with a new plan and a new day.