The Richer Harvest

Autumn is a season where human beings look to fill their storehouses with the bounty of harvest to ward off the anxiety of the lean months of winter. Today, our storehouses are warehouses and processing centers that handle the distribution of food to our local groceries, which hardly, if ever, seem “lean.” It’s not the same as participating in the harvest directly, but it’s the next best thing.

In this month of Thanksgiving, the first thought of thanks usually goes towards “stuff.” We Americans are certainly blessed with an overabundance of stuff. Never before in history has a nation been so well stocked with food, clothing, and other material comforts. Many around the world look upon our wealth with envy.

But does stuff make us wealthy? Even more important, does stuff produce happiness?

Though our storehouses are filled by agribusiness these days, there is another kind of harvest that yearns for our participation. St. Thalassios the Libyan once wrote, “A good heart produces good thoughts: its thoughts correspond to what it stores up in itself.”

Take a moment and meditate on the months past between this Thanksgiving and last, and consider the things that you have stored up in your heart.

What you have placed in the storehouse of your heart will bear a direct correlation to the level of happiness and wealth you experience today. I could have a great investment portfolio that increased a hundredfold, but if I did not have a hand to hold or the hug of unearned love, I would not know true happiness or real wealth.

I could have a nice house filled with pleasant things, but if I did not have the opportunity to share my time, talent, and treasure with others, I would not know true happiness or real wealth.

I could have the finest clothes money could buy--with jewelry to match--but if I could not share intimacy with friends, I could in no way know true wealth or happiness.

As you gather to give thanks around tables laden with the bounty of our agribusiness harvest, take a moment to consider the things you have harvested for your heart this past year. Is that harvest plentiful? Are you wealthy with a good heart?

If not, then you know there are new fields to plow and prepare for the coming months. If your heart is wealthy, filled with good thoughts and rich in love, then take a moment to consider the fields from which that harvest came. Look into their faces and thank God.

Joel t