The Harvest Becomes Seed Again

The Pilgrim Continues His Way
September 13, 2026
The Pilgrim’s Account of the Fifth Meeting
Fellow Traveler: The Barin
Source: The Pilgrim Continues His Way, translated by Olga Savin, Shambhala, 2001

I have learned so much from The Pilgrim Continues His Way, but this may be the clearest and most direct lesson I have received from the book.

I needed this.

After his encounter with the soldier, the Pilgrim was uncertain about where he should go next. He considered returning to Kyiv to visit his spiritual father. Instead, while still at Pochaev, he encountered a Barin—a gentleman—who was preparing to make a pilgrimage on foot to the Solovetsky Monastery.

The Barin invited the Pilgrim to travel with him and offered to pay their expenses. They agreed to walk about seven yards apart so they would not disturb one another.

I love that picture.

They were companions, but they gave one another space.

As they traveled, the Pilgrim noticed that the Barin was constantly reading a book. Finally, his curiosity got the better of him. He wanted to know what the man was reading.

The book was the Bible.

The Barin explained that he was studying what Scripture teaches about prayer. He believed prayer was essential to the Christian life and that the teaching about prayer could be traced throughout Scripture.

He began showing the Pilgrim.

Jesus teaches us not to pray for show. He gives us the Lord’s Prayer. He teaches us to forgive. He tells us to Ask, Seek, and Knock. Jesus teaches persistence in prayer. John speaks of worshiping in spirit and truth and of abiding in Christ as branches abide in the vine. Acts shows the church praying and the Spirit moving. Paul tells us that when we don’t know how to pray, the Spirit helps us.

Pray without ceasing.

As I read this, something happened inside me.

Many years ago, when I attended Free Will Baptist Bible College, I took a class with Laura Belle Barnard using With Christ in the School of Prayer. I remember learning that ASK could help us remember Jesus’ words:

Ask.
Seek.
Knock.

I probably heard much of what the Barin was teaching the Pilgrim in that classroom all those years ago.

But I wasn’t ready to receive it then as I am receiving it now.

And suddenly I understood something about my own journey.

That class was the seed.

Life’s experiences have been the water.

Years of ministry. Family. Love. Loss. Success. Failure. Questions. Seminary. Changing churches. Changing theology. Prayer. Disappointment. Joy. People who entered my life and people who left it. Times when God seemed close and times when I wondered where God was.

The seed kept being watered.

And now comes the understanding.

This is the crop.

The harvest is ready.

But then I realized something else.

A harvest isn’t meant merely to be gathered and stored in a barn.

Part of the harvest becomes seed for another field.

I am experiencing that right now in a relationship with someone who has significant needs. I care about him. I pray for him. I listen to him.

But I am learning to say something I once had difficulty saying:

I cannot meet all your needs.

That doesn’t mean I don’t care.

It means I am not God.

I can listen. I can pray. I can share what I have learned. I can point toward the One who has carried me through my own journey.

And then I must allow the other person to walk his own journey with God.

Suddenly those seven yards between the Pilgrim and the Barin mean something to me.

They traveled together.

But they didn’t crowd each other.

They were companions, but each had to walk his own steps.

There is a lesson there about ministry that has taken me most of my life to understand.

Humility says: I don’t have all the answers.

Love says: I will walk with you.

Boundaries say: I cannot walk your journey for you.

Prayer says: God is present with both of us.

And grace says: the growth does not depend entirely upon either one of us.

Paul wrote:

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.”
—1 Corinthians 3:6

There it is.

Plant.

Water.

Give it room.

Trust God for the growth.

Perhaps that is what reaping the harvest really means.

The harvest of a lifetime isn’t mine to hoard. What God has taught me through grace can be reinvested. It can become seed planted in someone else’s ground.

But I don’t make it grow.

That belongs to God.

Laura Belle planted something in me many years ago. Others watered it. Life watered it. Tears watered it. Prayer watered it. God’s sanctifying grace continued working in soil I didn’t always realize was being cultivated.

And now, decades later, an old Russian Pilgrim and a Barin walking down a road helped me recognize what has grown.

I understand now what I couldn’t fully understand then.

And perhaps some of the harvest God has given me can become seed for somebody else.

Open Heart.
Open Hands.
Clear Boundaries.

Plant the seed.

Walk beside them.

Leave enough space for God.

And trust God with the harvest.