Growing Good Corn

Author unknown for this story:
A co-worker gave me this story today at work and I thought I'd share it with you.

The story goes...
There once was a farmer who grew award-winning corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a blue ribbon.

One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his best seed with his neighbors.

"How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.

"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't you know?" The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to filed. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."

This farmer was very much aware of the connectedness of life. He can't improve his corn unless he also helps to improve the quality of his neighbors corn.

Proverbs 11:24-25
(24) Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything.
(25) The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.

Just as this farmer shared his good corn with his neighbors, we too need to share with our neighbors. When I read this proverb and think about this story we can apply this lesson in many areas of our lives. To live in peace, maybe we need to help our neighbors to live in peace. To live well, maybe we need to help others to live well. It is possible to give things away and become richer and it's also possible to hold onto to tightly and lose everything. As the proverb says... those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. In other words, if we want to grow good corn, we must help our neighbors grow good corn.

Think about what you can do to help your neighbors and don't be surprised if you receive refreshing blessings in return. By watering others, we water ourselves. So today... start watering!