“Therefore, thrust in your sickle with all your soul, and your sins are forgiven you, and you shall be laden with sheaves upon your back, for the laborer is worthy of his hire. Wherefore, your family shall live.” (D&C 31:5). There’s a reason that the Lord uses a sickle as a metaphor for laboring to save souls instead of a combine harvester, and not just because they hadn’t been invented yet at the time He gave that revelation. You have to use your own two hands to harvest with a sickle. You have to be out there in the field in person, picking up each sheaf of grain in turn. Ever since the Industrial Revolution we have liked to systematize things, automate them, trade in personal care and attention to detail for efficiency and economies of scale. But when we talk about the Lord’s great and marvelous work, we are talking about bringing souls unto Christ that they may be saved. And not just any souls, but our own brothers and sisters. Our families. We can’t stuff family into a spreadsheet. We can’t shove them onto an assembly line. So many of us want to just rush through this work. Why can’t Christ come again already, scoop up the righteous, burn the wicked, and we can all pack it in and stop sweating and suffering out in the field? The work is never done, for God’s works are endless. Even with the last swing of the scythe and the last grain collected, that just means it’s time to plow and plant again. There is redemption and salvation in the work, not only for the souls being gathered in, but also for the laborers trying to be worthy of their hire. It is a work and a glory, not a work and a drudgery. I hope that we can all come to find the joy in the journey and the glory in the work and to appreciate that this work requires all of our effort, all of our focus, and all of our souls.
