Early in my ministry, I served as the pastor of First Baptist Church of Edgefield, South Carolina. Edgefield is in the center of the state’s peach farms. Peaches are grown everywhere in Edgefield County. Wherever you drive, you see peach orchards stretching out to the horizon in every direction. There are all kinds of peaches grown for all kinds of markets. Some peaches are to be canned, frozen, or mixed. Others are grown hardier to withstand the stress of shipping, and the best are grown for the juicy, messy, pure flavor of the peach. These have to be used immediately in cobbler and ice cream.
And there is nothing better in the world.
Each type of peach was harvested at a different time. There was some type of peach becoming ripe throughout the summer. Here’s what I learned about harvesting peaches — it’s more of an art than a science. Day after day, the farmers will walk out into the orchard, pick a peach from a tree, slice it open and look at the meat of the fruit, taste it, do some equation in their head, and then say, “Not yet” or “Time to get them in!”
That last sentence would unleash a flurry of activity from workers being sent to the orchards’ packing sheds, cranking up for frantic action of picking, gathering, washing, grading, sorting, boxing, and loading the peaches for shipping.
And something else would happen.
The farmers would begin the process of preparing the trees for their next growing season. Trees would be pruned to encourage new growth. Sick or dead trees would be dug up and new trees planted. The ground would be plowed and mowed to discourage weeds and vines that could overgrow and smother the trees.
The farmers would go over their season, analyzing each type of peach, fertilizer, and anything else that impacted the growth and health of their peach orchards. In other words, the farmers weren’t finished with THIS year’s growing season until they were ready for NEXT year’s season.
The last thing they did was get ready for the next thing.
And there’s always a next thing. One of the mistakes we make as we begin to make decisions about retirement or second careers is we begin to assume the thing we’ve finished will be the last time we do that thing, or maybe, the last time we do anything at all!
We’re rarely right and we cheat ourselves out of some great moments in life because we fail to anticipate and plan for the next growing season. Sure, you may retire and that’s an appropriate time to celebrate the harvest of your career. It’s also a great time to plan for the next growing season.
Did you finish the back porch? What’s the next project? Did you complete your novel? What’s your next book?
Did you climb one mountain? Where’s the next mountain?
Every experience, every success, and every failure is an education in what works and doesn’t work. Every moment, we’re learning what we enjoy and what we don’t, and let’s face it, we don’t have time to do anything we don’t enjoy anymore!
Every yesterday builds tomorrow, and with as many yesterdays as we have, tomorrow is going to be amazing.
I’ve spent my life studying Scripture and learning how to preach. I’m pouring all I’ve learned into my next sermon.
I’ve spent over forty-one years learning how to be a husband, father, and friend. Now, I’m learning how to be a grandfather.
Every ending opens the door to our next beginning. We don’t say “Finished.” We say, “Next!”
Celebrate your victories! Study every failure. Use what you learned to do better today and tomorrow. Every harvest prepares us for the next growing season.
Don’t let the completion of one project trick you into thinking you’re finished altogether. We’re not. We’re just ready for the next thing.
And there’s always a next thing.
