“There isn’t any sense in not planting anything.”

“There isn’t any sense in not planting anything,” my grandfather stated matter-of-factly to me as I was riding with him in his iconic, red, Ford 250. The thought initially struck me as the creation of unnecessary work. But I quickly recognized it as a nugget of wisdom. And as a motto for his life.

My grandfather put his hand to many things throughout his life. He grew up working with his father on the railroad. He drove a school bus. He had a Master’s degree, and nearly two. He helped his father-in-law run a dairy business and later sold Angus cattle and had his own hay business. He spent decades teaching welding at the high school I attended. He was a member of various organizations including serving as deacon for his church.

But throughout it all, there was the garden. He kept a 40,000-foot garden that required a tractor to manage. (He was a go-big-or-go-home kind of guy.) It was more than enough to feed his small family throughout the year or take them through hard times. The quintessential gentleman farmer, he took pleasure in allowing friends as well as visitors to pick what they needed.

Yet he planted more than crops. While teaching generations of young men a trade, he sowed into them life skills. He bred cows and slaughtered hogs for the family farms in the region, which kept him invested in the local economy. He was a Sunday School teacher, feeding souls with the Word of God. After he passed, we received numerous solicitations for missions that he had been supporting.

Land, tools, and knowledge were resources that God had provided; planting was then an act of worship for him. Matthew 13:8 says, “Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Some years, the crops will fail. Some people will reject grace given them. But even if you harvest only thirty times the grain you plant, it is still more than you had before. My grandfather believed there was a harvest of righteousness for him if he did not give up. So in faith, he continually planted seeds that would provide food for his family, body and soul. And after that, his community. And in the ultimate metaphor, he planted winter crops, such as turnips, which he did not like. Whatever was not eaten would be plowed under to enrich the soil for the next year’s plantings. He understood that spending time in prayer and building human connections are what would nourish his spirit in days ahead.

Whether or not we have money, land, or knowledge, we can all pray and give of ourselves. Even the widow gave a mite. Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Whatever comes back to us is more than we had before.

Indeed, there isn’t any sense in planting nothing!