ELIMINATING MAKES SUSTAINABILITY

 George Washington Carver (1864-1943) is often remembered as the peanut farmer who invented peanut butter. But Carver was much more. He became an expert agriculturalist and led a revolution of farming methods in the South, where fields were exhausted by cotton. He introduced sustainable farming practices that gave the land rest and replenishment, such as crop rotation and planting protein-rich crops like soy and sweet potatoes. 

Even land needs healing. Pressed to exhaustion, land is of no use to anybody, becoming wasteland. That’s why year of Jubilee described in Leviticus 25 was a time for the Israelites to let the land lie fallow (that is, not plant crop) and allow the soil to regain its nutrients and moisture.

³FOR SIX YEARS SOW YOUR FIELDS, AND FOR SIX YEARS PRUNE YOUR VINEYARDS AND GATHER THEIR CROPS. ⁴BUT IN THE SEVENTH YEAR THE LAND IS TO HAVE A YEAR OF SABBATH REST, A SABBATH TO THE LORD. DO NOT SOW YOUR FIELDS OR PRUNE YOUR VINEYARDS. ⁵DO NOT REAP WHAT GROWS OF ITSELF OR HARVEST THE GRAPES OF YOUR UNTENDED VINES. THE LAND IS TO HAVE A YEAR OF REST.

(Levite 25:3-5)

Jubilee was freedom for the slave, redemption from bondage and healing for the land and people. Gorge Washington Carver, a remarkable inventor and entrepreneur who embodied these themes, was born a slave. When only an infant, he and his mother were abducted by slave raiders. His mother was sold and shipped away, but Gorge’s master bought him back from the raiders exchange for a horse. Carver eventually went to high school and became the first black student at Simpson College. 

He earned a master’s degree in agriculture and became a professor. Slavery, redemption, healing. 

Jubilee brings so many of the needs of our lives together: healing, redemption, freedom. When we rest and remind ourselves that only God is God, then He brings healing, restoration and life. 

¹⁸“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS ON ME,
   BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME
   TO PROCLAIM GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR.
  HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM FREEDOM FOR THE PRISONERS
   AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT FOR THE BLIND,
  TO SET THE OPPRESSED FREE,
   ¹⁹TO PROCLAIM THE YEAR OF THE LORD’S FAVOR.”

MAKE IT REAL: Today, eliminate one thing you normally try to squeeze into your schedule. Take that time to rest or relax with a walk. Be still and focus on the fact that only God is God.