From LIRA supporter John Rabe of Lincoln, Nebraska.

Spending any time in farm country, as it exists today, one is struck with much to consider.  Serene pastoral beauty?  Good, hardy folk living as one with the land?  Endless miles of lush and nutritious food for the world?  While is is possible you may find those things, it is certain you will find something less idealistic.  

I’m not speaking specifically of the manifest problems of rural America, such as population decline, decreased church attendance or even the evidence of moral decline, such as statistically high substance abuse.   These are quantifiable and known to all with any connection to our rural lands.  

What is most striking to me is something that is always present, highly evident and unavoidable but difficult to define succinctly.   It is every farmer’s battle.  Indeed it is the battle of anyone who cares for even a small bit of land.  It is…..what?  What to call it?  Decay? Entropy? Weeds? Rust? Chaos? Death?  Or simply the forces of the fall?  

Our rural countryside is really a battle ground despite its seemingly placid appearance.  In Genesis 1:28 God blessed Adam and Eve and commanded them to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…”  Evidently the land required to be subdued, in some way, even before the Fall!   I need not detail the subsequent cursing of the land other than to mention that thorns and thistles are with us to this day.  

We may be tempted to think that the land is subdued.  Perhaps it was, in a way, in the years after the homestead rush, when every section was cared for almost literally by hand but perhaps it wasn’t really for the forces of the fall are relentless.  “Rust Never Sleeps” to quote one aging pop cultural voice.  The forces of the fall were held at bay only by hard work, commitment, dedication and more hard work.  

In modern agricultural production those forces are largely subdued through ingenuity, mechanical power, application of whatever is necessary etc.  But what about areas that are not in active profitable production or managed care?   

One need not look far to find a derelict farm place in some degree of disrepair.  Many former homes of proud families are being beaten down slowly by the forces of the fall.   Many others have disappeared completely under the dozer and the plow.   This battle is pointedly visible on any typical country road or highway.  On one side of the road is a farm place, well kept with a green lawn, crisply mowed all the way to the road and 200 feet in both directions.  Across the road is the shell of a farm house, a barn with a broken back and a mangled windmill tower, all swimming to tall weeds, grass and volunteer trees.  Often littered with abandoned machinery that is far beyond repair.   As population continues to decline, there is little doubt which side of this battle seems to be winning.  

But, it is not so at LIRA!  The Maronde family themselves, the entire LIRA project and its supporters are striking back.  Sometimes literally, with chain saws!  But is it also an effort with goals that are not simply part of an earthly battle.  Hence the inclusion of the descriptive “Lutheran” in the name.   

The LIRA project brings hope in many forms.  We are in a time when like-minded people must be courageous and build up communities of mutual benefit.  While there is some value in an online community, there is also an absolute necessity to build real things that draw us together in real places.  What could be more real and beneficial than teaching our youth to grow food within the bounds of God’s created order?  Please consider joining families like mine, who are committing to help the LIRA project in whatever way we can, be it large or small.