Keep Your Hand to the Plow Reflection and Prayer

This reflection uses the words of WFU Founder Samuel Wait from a letter to his wife, Sarah Wait to give a glimpse into his thoughts. As he expresses a temptation to give up his labors on behalf of the school to return home to live on a farm, we see that we are not the only ones who may imagine greener pastures as we strive to serve as ministers. A prayer by Archbishop Oscar Romero on planting seeds which will grow in the future reflects the reality of WFU as it has grown and blossomed into what it is today, born of such humble beginnings and thanks to the determination of one man, Samuel Wait.

Scripture Reading: Luke 9:51-52

Reading from Samuel Wait’s letter: The plan I have fallen upon, I am fully convinced, is the true one to benefit most, this large, and, in some respects, shamefully abused State. I sent long ago for my great-coat, flannels, &c., expecting a waggon would have gone to Newbern from Orange Co. but my things have not arrived. I have bought flannels here. Sometimes I borrow a cloak-- often I need none. (See if you can find the letter k in the word need I have just written.) I have been thinking seriously what I ought to do after next June should I be spared to see that time. I really want to be convinced that it is my duty to return to N. E.-- I have sometimes half resolved that, if life be spared, I will return and get me a little farm and manage that, preaching as a door might be opened to me. But then, I have now got hold of the plough, and I sometimes fear to look back. I do not believe I could, in any other way, have done half so much for the cause of truth, as in the course I have taken.

[Letter written by Samuel Wait to his wife, Sarah Wait Tuesday, January 11, 1831] The Samuel and Sarah Wait Collection PCMS 117 Wake Forest University Special Collections and Archives Z. Smith Reynolds Library Wake Forest University Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Questions for reflection:

• Samuel Wait was far away from his family. His name had been defamed in churches around Davidson County. He didn’t even have a coat, for heaven’s sake. His small son died by the time he wrote his next letter on April 21st. Things were not easy. He could have easily decided to go home.

• What if Samuel Wait had left our “shamefully abused state” and returned to New England?

• Do you ever want to retire to a little farm in New England? (or to some other oasis)?

• Because he decided to stay in NC and to follow what he discerned to be God’s call, Wake Forest happened.

• Did Samuel Wait get to see the fruits of his labors? Did he have any idea the great fruits which WFU would produce? Did he have any idea how big WFU would become? How many thousands of people would be part of WFU? Did he have any clue that basketball would be invented 65 years later and that 170 years later, the likes of Chris Paul, Muggsy Bogues and Tim Duncan?

• I hope we can be inspired by Samuel Wait as we get this glimpse into his thoughts, shared with his wife and preserved for us through his letters. When we are challenged to discern the right path to take, may we do it through prayer and with an openness to be led by God to places where we do not automatically want to go.

• A related prayer, written by Archbishop Oscar Romero 145 years after Samuel Wait’s letter, reminds us that, like Samuel Wait, walking around NC with his walking staff in hand, begging for donations and support to build a school, that we cannot know what impact our lives, actions and words are having on others.

Prayer of Oscar Romero

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, It is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction Of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. This is what we are about, we plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation In realizing that. This enables us to do something, And to do it very well. It may be incomplete, But it is a beginning, a step along the way, An opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference Between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. Amen.