All Other Ground Is Sinking Sand
I get two reactions when I tell people I’m a herdshare farmer:
“Wow! That’s amazing!”
“Oh. Raw milk? Isn’t that dangerous?”
And it’s often followed up from either side, “Have you gotten into any trouble with that?”
The case after case of lawsuits against Pennsylvania raw milk farmers don’t escape my notice. The magnet on my fridge with step by step instructions for a law enforcement farm raid reminds me of the risks I may be taking. Countless reels that land in my feed about the dangers of raw milk weigh in the back of my mind. The thought that this might be a passing fad has been a worry of mine.
Any of these things, lawsuits, farm raids, contaminated milk, or an uninterested customer base, could devastate my farm, livelihood, family, and potentially liberty.
Even so, there is hope.
Our hope is not in raw milk. It’s not in farming nor in the land. It doesn’t rest in policy or politics. It’s not in fad diets or traditional eating.
Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
Our work is farming. Our hope is Christ and His sacrifice that made way for us to be justified before the Father. Without that, all this is meaningless. We would be dead in our sin and it wouldn’t matter much what we did in this life. No matter how successful our farm would or wouldn’t be, if we remained separated from from God because we rejected the free gift of salvation that Jesus made possible through His perfect life, death, and resurrection, it would all be meaningless. It would be as the writer of Ecclesiastes professes, all our toil under the sun is worthless.
Because of our faith and salvation through Jesus, we have meaning on our farm and in our work. Prior to starting our herdshares, we prayed deeply and sought the Lord’s will for the farm. We believe we are doing what we have been called to do.
The verses we cling to here on the farm (we even had them printed on our milk jugs!) are Colossians 3:23-24 which say:
Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord.
Our first aim is to glorify God in our work. Our second aim is to serve others. The hope of our salvation pours over into our work. Simple things like milking a cow, tilling a field, and serving people high quality, low risk milk can be a form of worship to the one, true God. We pray that through our little farm, His name is spread and glorified.
This doesn’t mean we have some kind of prosperity gospel. We could still face lawsuits, raids, bacteria, and fleeing owners. But it does mean those thing don’t have to devastate us. Would it be hard? Yes. Could we lose the farm? Sure. But a hope build on anything other than Jesus Christ and his redeeming work on the cross is sinking sand. Should those things come our way, we still can have peace and joy knowing that our God is on the throne and our salvation is secured.
Furthermore, our faith does make us work to the best of our abilities. We strive to have high quality milk not because we fear the consequences of having poor quality, but because we are working for the Lord. Should we give God our second best? By no means. Rather, we strive for excellence as we give God our best.
As anxieties and worries creep in over the risks associated with being a herdshare farmer, we step back and remember who we are working for and why we work.
