Rob Darling: And God saw that it was good.

When Rob Darling started farming at High Tunstall Farm near Hartlepool 49 years ago, there was one old working horse left on the farm.  Within a few months it had died, and with it ended a whole way of farming life.  From then on machines, fertilizers, pesticides and ever more complex methods were to be the tools of Rob's life as young farmer.  In those days, five men produced less than a single man produces now.  But despite the sophistication of technology you are still at the mercy of the weather and the demands of the market. "Farming teaches you to take the rough with the smooth," says Rob.  "When I see all the ups and downs of the stock market now, I do feel sorry for people, but farming does you make you resilient to the changes and chances of life." 

Despite all the complexity, it is the simplest acts of nature that give Rob his greatest joy and the times when he feels closest to God in his work. 

"When I plough the field and cultivate and sow the crop and then I go back and see a single green spike coming through the soil, that is when I feel so uplifted and sense the closeness of God. Or I see it with cattle when a calf is newly born and it's mother licks it and soon it staggers to its feet - it's a wonderful sight."

This sense of wonder and experience of God in new life is very central to Rob's faith.  It is at these moments that you can feel God looking at his creation and saying, "Yes, this is very good, just as I want it be."

Over the years since he started going to St Luke's Hartlepool as a boy, Rob's faith has grown.  "Faith is like a seed.  It has to be planted in the ground for it to grow and the green shoots to come through. I see my faith inside and outside church as part of the same thing.  I encounter God at St Luke's and in the cattle shed and when looking over the fields.  The two parts are needed together and I get the same thrill from experiencing and relating to God in both places."

Despite the dangers of isolation that there is in farming, Rob loves people.  He is always happy to have a chat with those who walk the footpaths on his land.  He is an enthusiastic singer who delights in creating of music with others.  He is a dedicated family man and cherishes the contact and time spent with his large extended family.

For the past 37 years, Rob's work as a magistrate has offered a real contrast to his work as a farmer.  He sees it as important to carry God's vision of a 'good' creation with him into the courtroom too.  From his seat on the bench, he gets caught up in young lives that are often becoming ruined by drug addiction and alcohol abuse. Rob takes very seriously his responsibilities for making wise decisions about how best to encourage the signs of new life in those he meets there.

Rob has spent his life cultivating and nurturing his crops and his animals and serving the needs of the wider community.  He is all too acutely aware in his work as a magistrate of the human misery and pain that is caused when we fail to nurture and cultivate our human communities.  "It can be so frustrating to see situations in which nurture has gone wrong and to meet people who are living in situations which are not bringing out the best in them.  Sometimes I feel so helpless.  All I can do as a magistrate is deal with people as justly and fairly as possible and seek God's guidance as to a wise and good conclusion."

Through his work as a farmer, God provides Rob with a very close and tangible experience of a 'good' creation and how he wants life to be in all its abundance.   

Rob's work shows us how important it is as Christians to seek through our faith to work with God to bring this vision of a 'good' creation to all human life and to share in the thrill of seeing green shoots breaking through the ground wherever we are.