Noonday Notes

Volume 2, Issue 13

September 4th, 2026

By Tuesday of this week I still didn’t know what I was going to write about for this reflection. I kept running into ideas I had already explored. Didn’t I already write about returning to the same field each season? At first I was worried about repeating myself, but then I realized there’s a difference between a repeat and repetition.

A repeat is an act. Repetition is practicing something over and over because of what it’s producing in you. Driving a stick shift. Turning wood on a lathe. Harvesting greens. And someday riding a motorcycle. These are all skills I have because of repetition.

That brought me back to the manna. Every morning the Israelites are to go out and receive their portion. It’s a repetition. A daily practice. God even says He is testing them to see whether they will walk in His ways. I wrote about this a year ago but focused on the grumbling and daily portion part. But in my Exodus repetition I gleaned a new insight.

Yes, God is teaching them obedience and dependence. But in John 6 Jesus is like well actually that coriander honey wafer your fathers ate in the wilderness, that was me. Major metaphor points right there. He takes it further and tells them, “I am the bread of life…I am the living bread that came down from heaven….And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” The repetition in the wilderness for real bread was training for our eventual spiritual bread.

The repetition was creating spiritual muscle memory. Go to the Lord. Receive what He provides. Trust Him again tomorrow. Then do it again. And again. And again. Repetition isn’t just about learning something new, it can be letting something old sink deeper. Old like The Word.

The same is true when harvesting greens, packing produce, or making deliveries. Tom and I have delivered together for almost a year now. We know the route. We know the homes. We know the people. We don’t have to think about every step because repetition has turned it into muscle memory.

Farming is full of repetition. Plant. Water. Weed. Harvest. Wash. Pack. Deliver. Far from being boring, repetition is how we become proficient. It’s how habits take root. It’s how growth happens. In a world obsessed with shortcuts, automation, and instant results, farming and faith prove there is value in doing the same good thing over and over again.

Every day we’re building muscle memory for something. The question is whether it’s leading us toward our daily bread. What repetitions are shaping your life? What are you practicing? What are you training yourself to reach for automatically?

Read the rest of the newsletter here.