A couple of weeks ago, one morning, I looked out through my glass sliding doors and saw that a man on a yellow tractor was plowing furrows on the piece of vacant land on the other side of the parking lot of the apartment complex where I live.
     Periodically throughout the day I glanced out and saw him. He started on the side of the land closest to me. I would look out and see him getting farther and farther away. He would go one way, his tractor plow throwing up the dirt in front of him. And then he would come back the other way. Slowly, steadily, he got to the far end of the land.
     At the end of the day he put his tractor plow on a truck trailer and drove off, the land not completely plowed. The next morning he was back and in a few hours completed the job. And then he drove off, not to be seen again.
     The picture of this operator, with the hat, under the sun-roof of the yellow tractor plow, calmly, methodically and patiently plowing the furrows, stayed with me.
     One night, while in prayer, the Lord again brought that picture strongly to my mind. As I looked at the picture, now a vision, I saw super-imposed over it a bicycle rider and his bicycle. I got a very clear, sharp picture of a new modern, sleek bike and the rider and his attire. He had a helmet, goggles, leather stuff wrapped around his extremities and was the perfect picture of a professional cyclist.
     I then realized the purpose of the composite vision. It was a contrast of ministries. The tractor plow, calmly, methodically and patiently digging deep furrows into the ground to prepare it for the seeds necessary to produce life.
     The cyclist, on the other hand, in his two-wheeled self-propelled vehicle, would leave no indication that it had been in the areas it passed through. No tread marks would imprint onto the asphalt where it went. The dust trails would soon be wiped out by more traffic and the wind and the rain.
     In the vision, I saw him arrive at the finish line, a hero, a celebrity. He would be interviewed by the media. Pictures would be taken. Stories would be written about him. He would win money, fame and favor with the public. He might even go on to greater achievements and become a sports idol to those who are into the cycling world.
     The man on the tractor plow would not be an adored public figure. He would simply continue to do his job of preparing the ground to receive seed. And to produce life. And then to load up his equipment and go on to the next field.
     There are many in the church today who we can identify with the operator of the tractor plow. They are “unknowns.” They are using the power of the Word of God to calmly, methodically and patiently plow the furrows into the earth of humanity. These will be receptive to the seed of the power of the Holy Spirit, which will follow.
     This will produce life, and life more abundantly. And that life will reproduce itself and other operators of the tractor plow of Gods Word will go forth. Into all of the earth. And life will produce life.
     The professional, self-powered cyclists will have their day of glory, here on this earth. You have seen their ministries. You may even have envied their reputations, their publicity, their rewards.
     To those operators of the tractor plow, who are discouraged, disheartened and despised by the world and by some in the church, I offer these words of appreciation and encouragement:
     At the judgment seat of Christ, the operator of the tractor plow and the professional cyclist will stand side by side.
     To which one will Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant?”