Minty Fresh

September 3, 2025

South central Wisconsin: corn, soybeans, corn, corn, wheat, soybeans . . . mint?

My family and I have lived on the Wisconsin prairie for 7 years. During that time I have enjoyed watching plenty of row crops grow from seed to harvest. This is the first year that I have witnessed mint fields from planting to harvest.

Wisconsin is actually touted as the #5 mint producer in the United States.[1] Mint is mainly grown for the oil, which is used to flavor things from toothpaste to gum. Think of Colgate and Wrigley’s as key end users.[2] Brushing your teeth and chewing gum is potentially like a refreshing taste of Wisconsin.

The mint field near my house was recently harvested. What a delightful aroma! Not that corn and soybeans are bad—they’re just, well, standard commodities. Mint offers something fresh and renewing. I wonder about the lesson in that for me. Mint seems like an appealing alternative.

Rest

As disciples of Jesus Christ, we seek to join God in His Kingdom advancing mission. As Seventh Day Baptists, we highlight that we do this through participating in God’s work and his rest. That possibly sounds like a minty fresh way to live life—renewing and a bit counter cultural. We are not designed to grind out life, but enjoy a rhythm of work and rest based on God’s design.

Living a restful life rather than a restless lifestyle requires intentionality. In her book, The Sense of the Call, Marva Dawn provides some great thoughts about Sabbath to redirect our incessant striving on the treadmill of life:

Consequently, our Sabbath ceasing has to begin with an honest assessment of how much we keep depending on ourselves instead of God . . . the only way to cease our incessant labor is to know ourselves as valued by other means than our accomplishments, our only recourse for workaholism is to learn ever more deeply God’s cherishing . . . Why do we keep trying to accomplish things instead of believing that the Kingdom reigns through us if we let it revitalize and renew us?[3]

As I run past the mint field and continue to smell the fresh aroma, I wonder about the aroma of my own life. Am I living a restful rhythm of work and rest? Do I honestly know the release from constant striving because ultimately, God’s Kingdom “reigns through us”?

For more about rest, you can check out this Sabbath description. And, you can chase down the following footnotes for more about mint.[4]

[1] Alice in Dairyland post: https://www.instagram.com/p/C_ToGuYydg9/