Why You Must Keep Sowing Even When You Are Sad

Psalm 126:5–6

May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy!
He that goes forth weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.
rsv

There is nothing sad about sowing seed. It takes no more work than reaping. The days can be beautiful. There can be great hope of harvest. Yet Psalm 126 speaks of “sowing in tears.” It says that someone “goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing.” Why is he weeping?

I think the reason is not that sowing is sad or that sowing is hard. I think the reason has nothing to do with sowing. Sowing is simply the work that has to be done, even when there are things in life that make us cry. The crops won’t wait while we finish our grief or solve all our problems. If we are going to eat end of the month or have enough for retiremet, we must get out in the field and sow the seed whether we are crying or not.

This psalm teaches the tough truth that there is work to be done whether I am emotionally up for it or not, and it is good for me to do it. Suppose you are in a season of heartache and discouragement, and it is time to sow seed. Do you say, “I can’t sow the field this season, because I am brokenhearted and discouraged”? If you do that, you will not eat in the future. You won't be blessed in the future.

Suppose you say instead, “I am heavy hearted and discouraged. I cry at breakfast. I cry if the phone and doorbell ring at the same time. I cry just reading the newspaper. I cry for no reason at all, but the field needs to be sowed. That is the way life is. I do not feel like it, but I will take my bag of seeds and go out in the fields and do my crying while I do my duty. I will sow in tears. I will keep doing that which I must do on a day to day basis. I won't stop just because I am sad.”

If you do that, the promise of this psalm is that you will “reap with shouts of joy.” You will “come home with shouts of joy, bringing your sheaves with you,” not because the tears of sowing produce the joy of reaping, but because the sheer sowing produces the reaping. We need to remember this even when our tears tempt us to give up sowing.

The great novelist George MacDonald counseled the troubled soul, “Bethink thee of something that thou oughtest to do, and go to do it, if it be but the sweeping of a room, or the preparing of a meal, or a visit to a friend. Heed not thy feelings: Do thy work.”

So here’s the lesson: When there are simple, straightforward jobs to be done, and you are full of sadness and the tears are flowing easily, go ahead and do the jobs with tears. Be realistic. Say to your tears: “Tears, I feel you. You make me want to quit life, but there is a field to be sown (dishes to be washed, a car to be fixed, people to minister to, a sermon to be written). I know you will wet my face several times today, but I have work to do and you will just have to go with me. I intend to take the bag of seeds and sow.”

Then say, by faith in the future blessing, on the basis of God’s Word, “Tears, I know that you will not stay forever. The very fact that I just do my work (tears and all) will in the end bring a harvest of blessing. God has promised. I trust him. So go ahead and flow if you must. I believe (I do not yet see it or feel it fully)—I believe that the simple work of my sowing will bring sheaves of harvest, and your tears will be turned to joy.”