Back in early 2003 a friend and I agreed to seek God together, with no agenda in mind other than to let God set the agenda. After a period of seeking, we concluded God’s guidance was that hard times are coming and we need to prepare.
We spent hours considering this and what form the preparation should take. I don’t intend to relay to you all the detail today other than one aspect: grain mills.
Why grain mills? Because 15 years later in 2018, God’s prompting hasn’t left me but on the contrary seems to have grown. Let me explain.
God’s Prompting to Persevere
I recall one of the prayer times my friend and I shared back in 2003. We were trying to find a sense of rightness about how one might mill grain should hard times overtake us, but didn’t get past such wacky ideas as trying to find someone who owned a wind or water mill. You may laugh!
That weekend I visited a National Trust house and, seeing that the estate included a windmill, went to investigate. What I found inside the mill was the solution to our searching: a little hand-operated modern quern stone (a pair of stones shaped to grind grain into flour) was set up for folks to play with. I thought such equipment had died out after the Iron Age so was surprised to find that they are still manufactured and used in parts of the Third World. With it someone can grind (with about half an hour’s effort) sufficient grain for a family’s daily needs.
After an internet search, we each obtained a Western World equivalent made of metal and plastic, got some sacks of grain and started experimenting. And from there it might have gradually become a fad of yesteryear, but for last summer when I sensed God’s prompting to persevere with working to be a prepared person.
I’d previously bought a sturdier, all-metal hand grain mill with a view to running it by pedal power, but had never progressed beyond sketches of how to do it. Upon telling some farming friends of my project, I was provided with an exercise bike and a pulley wheel off an old engine. The exciting result (well, I’m excited!) you can see in the photo.
A Broader Lesson
Why am I relaying this to you now? Several days ago, I asked God if there was more to it than simply fun and incredibly tasty bread. That same morning, I believe God provided me with an answer from Ecclesiastes 12:1-4. This is the thought that I share for your consideration.
Solomon exhorts his readers to “remember your creator while you are young, before the evil days come…”, referring to old age. Solomon then gives some pictures of these ‘evil days’ and includes “when women stop grinding grain” and “when the noise of the grain-mill fades”.
These few words have been a wake-up call for me, as though my youth is passing me by (I was only 45 years old in 2003 and physically fitter than I am now at 60). Whatever the future brings – we may need grain grinders and much more - this is not just about grinding flour, but about our attitude towards the uncertainty of this life and our calling in Jesus to be watchful, prepared people.
Unless I become a prepared person now, those foretold hard times might well come upon me like a “thief in the night” with all the knock-on consequences for my walk of faith. Now is the time for me to act – not in fear, but in wisdom and through seeking the Lord!
Does this resonate with you?
Author: John Quinlan