The Farmer's Five by Sharon Heagy

 

    Distractions. When it comes to discussing things that distract me, I could probably write several volumes. When it comes to dealing with the distractions and getting back on track, I probably couldn’t compose a pamphlet. If I am honest with myself, I am more like the dog from the movie ‘Up’ than I care to admit. (“Squirrel!”) But I do want to share what has been a significant distraction for me for about the past 4 decades. I call it, the Farmer’s Five.

            When you find yourself blessed enough to be married to a fabulous guy who is also a farmer, like my husband, you may be subject at any moment to the Farmer’s Five. Gazing out of the kitchen window you may espy a handsome, overall clad fellow taking purposeful strides towards the house. You may gasp as the realization kicks in that you are about to be subject to the Farmer’s Five. (Dun dun dunn) 

            Time freezes for an instant and suddenly there he is, filling the back entry with his presence, and then, he speaks. “Hey there, good lookin’, do you think you could come and give me a hand for five minutes?”

            Everything you have been working on comes to a halt as your don the appropriate attire and follow the farmer out the back door. Steam rises from a pot of potatoes, half boiled, now turned off. Supper remains half made. A sentence you have been working on remains half written. Or the living room has a tell-tale pattern of the cleaned and uncleaned. The dog’s coat is glossy and smooth on one side and resembles the hair of Einstein on the other. The garden is half weeded; the grass half mowed. Such is the fallout from the Farmer’s Five.

            But the reality of the Farmer’s Five is it may only be 5 minutes but it is much more often multiples of 5 even up to 5 hours and can include a trip to town for parts. Though it is a non-entity it seems to have an unpredictable life of its own. You wonder if there is actually an end in sight then POW. Just as suddenly as it started it’s over and you must try and get your bearings and recall what on earth you were doing before the Farmer’s Five occurred. Sometimes the activity in progress is called on account of darkness or exhaustion and sometimes, every so often, the task you were working on gets completed.

            But the truth is that even though you have been distracted whatever jobs you were doing eventually get done once you return your focus, and I think that’s key. Often we need some assistance, at least I know I do, and the first place to find peace, focus and direction is in God’s presence. “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 121:2)

            There is another distraction that can occur in life, a Holy distraction if you will. A Father’s Five. When we are off track, following a path we should not go down, God our Father will distract us, break our focus and help us turn our eyes to Him. He will help us to turn around and walk in His way. Some of us are not always responsive to the first Father’s Five we receive as we are not all that spiritually smart or we have a high dose of stubborn or “we all, like sheep, have gone astray.” (Isaiah 53:6) We are trying to accomplish ‘our will be done’ instead of His so it may take 5 minutes, 5 hours  or 5 years of His holy distractions to get us back on His holy path.

            Whether we need focus from distraction or distraction from wrong focus, our Source is still the same. If we are called for a purpose, He will enable us to complete it. He will give us the skills, the gifts – both natural and supernatural, the freedom and all that we need. We have but to ask. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)

Praise God.