“ . . . always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” 2 Corinthians 4:10-11

As grains of wheat, the fields we are to die in represent our relationships with others, and this demonstrates the kingdom of God. When we come into contact with sin and desperation, rejection and arrogance, mistrust, frostiness and all the unsightly, dark and painful realities that most people are confronted with, we experience death. However, God will only allow those parts of our lives to die that cannot serve His kingdom. These areas of our lives will require complete transformation and resurrection, so that they too can enrich His kingdom.

If we don’t back away from this death of our former selves, we can be split open like the grain of wheat. This cannot take place without us being prepared to leave the comfort and warmth of our homes, and to go out into the cold harshness of this world, bury ourselves in this forsaken field and abandon everything we once had. It can be extremely draining to struggle in a foreign language with the simplest everyday things, before even thinking about evangelising. Living in a completely foreign environment where we are constantly made aware of our cultural insensitivities and blunders, it would be easy to simply turn our backs on colleagues who mock us, and not to invite unfriendly neighbours over.

Our lives are spent in small amounts of change and seldom in large transactions. Often we would prefer to be one of those golden grains of wheat which sits in a pile with the many others, showing evidence of a bountiful harvest.