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Amy K Fewell | Homesteading for the Kingdom

Amy K Fewell | Homesteading for the Kingdom

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Mini Devotional | Making a Difference

September 14, 2018 · In: devotional, Featured, personal journey

“But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn't come through.” ― Francis Chan; Crazy Love

More and more each and everyday I realize that I am simply a vessel used by God. I literally am nothing without Him, through Him. I learn that it doesn’t matter how many times I fail, how many times I give up, or how many times I have no earthly clue what I’m doing—He’s going to use me despite all of my mishaps and crazy, only for His purpose.

In fact, He’ll use me even when I’m feeling the most confused and “unusable”.

Sometimes I think that if we were to remind ourselves of this greater purpose on a regular basis, we might see life a bit differently.

I don’t understand why things happen in this world most days, but I can tell you this, God is still alive and well and moving. I know because I see it each and every day. People look at me like I’m crazy, but friends, the things I witness on a regular basis are nothing short of a miracle.

God. Is. Real.

God is alive and well.

I have phone conversations with people I wouldn’t have dreamed of speaking to in 1,000 years, and we talk about dreams and the “greater good”. Some of them pan out, some of them don’t.

But God used me . . . . somehow, in some way, I was used. Those conversations had a purpose. Growth happened inside.

Even something as simple as witnessing a chicken lay an egg, and sharing that with my friends or family—getting back to the land—God used me.

Even in the midst of a conversation with a hurting wife online who needs direction, even if I don’t have all the answers, God used me.

Do you know that no matter what you do or say in this life, nothing matters unless you’re doing it with a greater purpose in mind.

Someone said to me today, “I’m not in the business of entertainment anymore, I’m in the business of making a difference.”

And the flood gates open wide . . . and in that moment, when your heart is completely open to whatever may come your way . . . . God uses you too, friends. He uses us to make a difference.

A lot of the things in life that God asks you to do, or leads you to do, will be simple. But the reality is that we serve an incredibly big God, and sometimes, He’s going to ask us to do incredibly big things when we have no idea how to do them.

“Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.”

So I challenge you right now to think of something that you know God is calling you or asking you to do. You know it. You’ve probably already thought of it in that split second of reading this.

And then, put it on your calendar. Open your heart. And see what God does. See how God uses you. Friend, it’s going to be crazy. But it’s going to be worth it.

Be in the business of doing, of making a difference, not just entertaining the thought of it anymore .

“But God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.” ― Francis Chan; Crazy Love

By: Amy K. Fewell · In: devotional, Featured, personal journey · Tagged: bible study, devotional, God, Mini Devotional

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Carmen says

    September 14, 2018 at 12:44 pm

    What a beautiful testimony – thank you for sharing!

  2. Lisa Wood says

    January 29, 2019 at 5:20 am

    I always loved that one line in that one song I don’t remember: ” People get ready, Jesus is coming.” And when I first heard the song I loved the idea and knew it would happen ONE DAY. But not one day when I was alive to see. And prophesies are becoming reality. I never have followed the news or politics before, but became extremely disrupted and upset when I started watching the last presidential election. Seeing things happening that weren’t suppossed to happen in America. Watching different people on TV and KNOWING they were lieing to enter us into one bunch of World people. I know from listening mostly to God. He’s getting ready for everything to go His way, praise God. It’s happening and I get to look up and see Him! Fir now I’m reading, resting and healing, and have started with chickens. Trying to be more sufficient.

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@amy.fewell

The headline sounds revolutionary: “Trump Signs Or The headline sounds revolutionary: “Trump Signs Order to Help Ranchers Bypass USDA-Inspected Processing Facilities.”

But what does the executive order actually do?

It directs the USDA to:

• Investigate unfair or monopolistic practices in the meatpacking industry.

• Review regulations and remove unnecessary reporting and overly prescriptive inspection requirements where current law allows.

• Expand cooperative inspection programs that let qualifying state-inspected processors sell meat across state lines.

• Provide training and technical assistance to small processors.

• Help farmers locate slaughter and processing options.

• Work toward a guaranteed-loan program for small and regional processors.

• Report within 60 days on the laws preventing state-inspected or custom-exempt meat from entering interstate commerce.

These may be worthwhile steps, or not. Processing consolidation has left family farmers with fewer choices, longer wait times, higher costs, and less control over the food they raise.

But here is the important part:

This order does NOT immediately give farmers a new legal right to butcher their livestock and sell that meat directly to consumers, especially across state lines. It does not eliminate federal inspection requirements or make custom-exempt meat legal for interstate commerce.

The order repeatedly states that USDA must act “consistent with applicable law.” An executive order can direct an agency to use authority it already has, but it cannot erase or rewrite federal statutes.

For lasting change, Congress must pass laws creating a clear, lawful path for family farmers and small processors to feed their communities. We’ve said this before—we aren’t fixing this in 4 years without a miracle—pass the Farm Bill!

A farmer selling meat directly to an informed neighbor is not the same as an industrial corporation distributing millions of pounds through a national supply chain. Our laws should recognize that difference.

This order may open a door and identify the barriers. But it does not finish the work.

Executive action may begin the conversation.

LEGISLATION is what can make the change real, durable, and firmly rooted.
There is something that happens when someone passe There is something that happens when someone passes away and they were impactful in, or upon, your life. As you sit with the thought that the breath of life—the space—that this person had in this world no longer exists, you find you want to be a little more like them in your own space. 

When my grandmother died, I wanted to remember all the best things about her. Her unconditional kindness. Her ability to remain calm. How she would sing and pray all the time in her home. I haven’t even remotely attained those character traits yet, but I’m getting there.

You think of someone like the great agrarian and writer, Wendell Berry. His convictions drove him to do and write in a certain way. He didn’t just talk about what he believed—he did it. And it makes my convictions stronger as I think about what he stood for, how he wrote, and how he lived.

The pattern is that when someone you love, or who greatly inspired you, leaves this earth—you begin to realize that you want to become someone who fills the void of their goodness within the earth. They must not be forgotten. Convictions grow stronger. Changes are made. Others are inspired.

And in pondering this, I thought to myself—this must be how the disciples felt when Jesus died. And it broke me. 

I have never seen my Savior or LORD face to face. I did not walk with Him as the dirt dusted our feet along a journey to a new city that would come to know His greatness. I never sat with Him personally, shoulder to shoulder, to be mentored. I don’t know how He wrote letters or notes. But upon the history written in scripture, I know Him.

And I think this is exactly how his friends and disciples felt after He died. And of course in His case, He rose again. 

Within each one of them, it was as if a fire were shut up inside of them. They did not have to be convinced of conviction and to act upon it. They loved Him so much that when they thought of Him, they lived better. They filled the void that was left. They told everyone about Him, and they wanted them to fill the void too.

Do I love Him this way? Do I miss my Lord so much that I want to take His place until He returns? This is the way—this is the que
He was one of the most brilliant writers in the wo He was one of the most brilliant writers in the world. A true agrarian heart with wisdom that surpasses so much of this current generation. I recommend every book he has written, especially The Unsettling of America. 

We used his “Peace of Wild Things” poem on one of our @homesteadersofamerica tshirts one year. It feels appropriate to share it again now. 

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives might be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief.  I come into the presence  of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”
 
From The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry (Counterpoint, 1999)

May he be resting in peace, even now.
There is a question I believe modern homesteaders There is a question I believe modern homesteaders need to start asking:

“Are we moving because God told us to move—or because fear told us to run?”

Historically, governments have displaced, relocated, incentivized, and concentrated populations for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes by force. Sometimes through policy. Sometimes under the banner of “progress,” “safety,” or the greater good.

My own family was affected by this one-hundred years ago when hundreds of families (2,000+ people) were removed from the mountains of Virginia to create Shenandoah National Park. These were farmers, families, churches, and communities. People who knew how to grow food, steward land, raise children, and live largely independent of government systems.
And now, nearly 100 years later, I find myself watching another migration.

Homesteaders are leaving states they believe no longer represent their values. They’re moving toward states considered more conservative, more rural, more affordable, or more “free.”

And I know that for many, God really IS moving them.
But we still need discernment. Because politics can change overnight.

Governors change. Legislatures change. Laws change. The “safe state” today may not be the safe state tomorrow.
So what happens then? Do we pack up and move again?
There comes a point when we have to ask:
“Has God called me to leave—or has He called me to stand?”

If God tells you to move to Texas, go to Texas.
If He tells you to move to New York, go to New York.

Because ultimately, our security was never supposed to be found in a red state, a blue state, a rural county, or a particular zip code.

Our safety is in the hand of Yahweh.

Sometimes obedience means going, sometimes obedience means staying.

But what if, maybe, some of this is all just the government herding people like sheep into certain locations? 

🌿 Comment DISPLACED and I’ll send it to your inbox!
Our last two babies have been intense. Meaning—the Our last two babies have been intense. Meaning—they are non-stop and never sleep. Ever. I was awake all night last night, and maybe got an hour of sleep. This is nightly. This will be the longest stretch with no sleep, as the older of the two was weaned by now and started transitioning to sleeping on her own at this age.

Is it hard? Yes. Did I almost start crying last night because I was so exhausted physically and mentally? Yes. Did I think about hurting my children? Never. Not once. Not ever. 

The trend that I’m seeing online right now of mothers hurting their children is heart breaking—not for the mother, but for the children. I can sympathize greatly with the stresses of life, but I cannot understand hurting a child…ever. 

Society has a “me” problem. A generation of people who grew up either entitled or as orphans in their own home, and all they can think about is “how can you take care of ME”. They don’t want to face reality like an adult. At some point in adulthood, when we become parents, we don’t get that privilege anymore. We become the nurturer, not always the nurtured.

So when I see the tik tok trend where a mother is pouring water on her screaming 8 month old, and just keeps doing it with the baby distressed, all because she “stands” with a mother who supposedly killed her children, it doesn’t take long for me to realize there’s a demonic agenda sweeping the nation and world right now. Abortion wasn’t good enough—the enemy needs ALL of them dead. And he will make you sympathize with murder and fits of rage in the process.

Women in our society have an idle and idol problem. Idle hands with nothing to do but scroll and compare instead of build a home (her job and role). Idol because we live in a culture that pushes “self” before selflessness. 

The world needs Jesus. 
Younger women need older women. 
Families need to return to the core of the home life.
Husbands and wives need to return to bearing the burden together.

Children are a gift and inheritance—never a burden. Does it mean you’ll be tired? Yes. But it is just a season, friend. And that season passes us by so quickly.

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