Never make fun of North Dakota!

Well, I have been living in North Dakota for almost three months now...and I continue to stand in respect of it. People here are hard workers and they know how to care for each other. One thing that has irritated me greatly since deciding to move here is the comments that people would make about it. "North Dakota? Isn't that the middle of nowhere?" or "North Dakota...aren't you going to fall off the face of the earth" or "North Dakota: nothing happens there!" and the like. There is an undercutting disdain for places like this where there are is more land than buildings...and you can see for miles...and the population is scant. People frequently say that nothing happens in North Dakota (despite the fact that I've felt more integrated in the social community than I did in the city).

It is true that there are not a lot of gourmet restaurants around here...there isn't fun nightlife for the most part...there are times when I get lonely missing my friends...and times when the vast amount of land between cities seems unending. But...there is one crucial reason why NONE of us have the right to make fun of North Dakota--or places like it: North Dakota dares to be bare and empty and vast and populated scantly so that the rest of our country can be supplied with food and resources. Where do city people think they get their groceries in their trendy markets from? There would be food for fancy restaurants in the cities if it were not for the efforts of farmers in the rural areas. There would be no resources for cities without North Dakota and other places like it. Farmers and people who live here lay down their lives for the sake of others. They're very brave people, putting the livelihood of their families at risk so that others can live. They never know when a weather disaster will destroy their crop. And yet they go on. They persevere. We ought to tip our hat to them, not make fun of them.

That's my sermon for today. Amen.