What Does it Mean to Turn?
Read Mark 1:1-8
John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. –Mark 1:4
Welcome back to the ZUMC daily devotionals! For the next four months, we will be working our way through the Gospel of Mark—the first of the four gospels to be written! Mark does not contain any account of Jesus’ birth or early life. Instead, he begins his story with the prophecy of Isaiah and the appearance of a strange man named John the Baptist. The keyword (repeated both in the prophetic words and in John’s ministry) is “prepare.”
That word makes me think of our time in Haiti. While Haiti observes the same four seasons that we have in Indiana, there are really two seasons that matter—the rainy season and the dry season. January is part of the dry season. For months on end, there will be little to no rainfall. Everything looks brown. But usually in the month of February, the farmers will go out and begin tilling the land.
Up where Jamalyn and I lived in the mountains, there were no flat plains for growing crops. Farmers would terrace the slopes in order to better catch the water that would be running down. It was a lot of work, especially since it was all done by hand. If you want to see a Haitian “konbit” in action, check out this video. Notice how they fall into sync around the 30-second mark.
The thing is, the Haitian farmers do this work weeks before the first rainfall of the year. Once the rainy season starts, the land becomes impossible to till in this way. If your seed is not already in the ground at that point, it’s too late. Within the first month or two of the rainy season, the Fondwa valley is transformed. A landscape that once looked brown and barren is suddenly teeming with green. The new life comes from the rain—but the Haitian farmers must prepare to receive that rain in order to benefit from it.
John the Baptist proclaimed that the long-awaited Messiah was coming into the world. The time of God’s salvation was fast-approaching. But in order to receive the Messiah and the life he brings, the people needed to prepare their hearts. How? Through repentance and action. The word “repentance” literally means to “turn” or “change,” to choose a different path for our lives. And John warned the people that simply saying “sorry” was not enough. They had to “bear fruit” of their repentance—sharing their blessings, treating people fairly, and being honest in all their dealings. (Luke 1:8-14)
Turning can have multiple meanings. We can think of it like a car turning around and going in a different direction. But we can also think of it like a field being turned over—breaking up what has become hard, being ready to receive seed and the water to nourish it. As you start the new year, what needs to be “turned over” in your heart? What concrete action can you take to prepare yourself to receive new life from God in the year to come?
O God, I am furrowed like the field, torn open like the dirt. And I know that to be healed, that I must be broken first. I am aching for the yield that You will harvest from this hurt. Abide in me, let these branches bear You fruit. Abide in me, Lord, as I abide in You.*
*from Andrew Peterson’s “The Sower’s Song”