Volunteer Corn

Driving down the road here in the flat lands of the Midwest I have ample opportunity to catch sight of a field or two. And now, after almost a decade of being married to a farmer, I know the difference between a corn field and a soy bean field. Not that it is that difficult to distiinguish or anything but I have finally learned the difference. Corn, when ready to pick, is taller than most humans. Beans are short and leafy.
The problem arises when I notice what I perceive as a bean field has corn in it. Not a lot of corn. Just enough stalks to make it look strange. Stalks poking up out of the obvious beans.

So one day I asked my agronimist husband what it was. It‘s called “volunteer corn”. It is corn from the previous year that didn’t get plucked when it was supposed to and is now growing this year. It volunteered to grow there. No one planted it. No one watered it. It just grew where it was.

It made me think of what we are supposed to be doing. Volunteer. We don’t need to be asked, begged or noticed. We are just supposed to volunteer. Hold babies in the nursery. Make dinner for a neighbor. Change the trash. Clean the toliet. Find the lost. Sing in the choir. Build houses for the homeless. Feed the hungry. Dig wells for the thirsty.

Some opportunities are easier than others. Some take an hour. Some take a week or so. Others might take a lifetime. Some we might find easy. Some make us step out of our comfort zones. But whatever it is we are called to do something. Volunteer somewhere.

Get out there and find something you can do. Someone you can help. Somehwere you can go. Poke your head up above those other beans planted in ther seats. Become the volunteer corn you were meant to be.