October 20, 2021 I agreed to do it, but I told him not to tell anyone. I was 16 or 17 years old. A friend had asked me to drive his antique tractor in a tractor pull. For some reason, he wanted it competing in the “Powder Puff pull,” the women’s competition. If I remember correctly, my friend had asked other young ladies he knew who knew how to drive tractor, and no one would agree to do it. So, I agreed to drive the tractor in the tractor pull, but I didn’t want it “getting around” that I was doing it. I didn’t think it seemed very “cool” to be driving a tractor in a tractor pull. The reality was that driving a tractor was part of who I was at that time. My father and grandfather co-owned a dairy farm. My dad had only daughters. My sisters and I worked in hay mows, milked cows, cleaned livestock stalls and drove tractors. I didn’t want to show people who I really was. While I can attribute some of my concern about being cool to the fact that I was a teenager at the time, don’t we sometimes shy away from showing people who we really are even when we’re far away from the years when we can use teenage insecurity as an excuse? That entered my mind as I prayed about this week’s World Mission Sunday. Especially in this secular world, it’s hard to profess a love of Christ to others and be who we are – children of a loving God – publicly. I know I’ve let opportunities to do it pass me by out of fear. Yet there are others, missionaries, who travel great distances, often at great personal expense and risk, to share Christ and his love with others. And there are others, no less missionaries, who share Christ’s love with their families, their neighbors, their workplaces and their communities. They embrace who they are, and they share it. As we approach World Mission Sunday, please support those who share their identities as followers of Christ with others, as we are all called to do, and serve the least of his people with their service, joy and love. Please pray for them. If you are able and called to do so, please support them financially. They give a lot often with little reward (at least I got a trophy from the tractor pull; I won second place). They agreed to do it. And they agreed to tell everyone. |
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