Do you feel like you’ve been working hard, and not getting anywhere? Does it seem like you’re in a continual drought and nothing seems to be changing? Good news… Seasons will change!
The Bible is rich with metaphors about farming, which I can relate to, since I enjoy gardening. One of the things about farming is that seasons change, which means that your daily tasks will change too.
When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? Isaiah 28:24 (NIV)
In my garden so far this year, I’ve already gone through the time of plowing. Having just a small patch of soil in my yard, I use a shovel to break up the clay soil. It is hard, back-breaking work to lift the soil and break it up. But there is a reason for it.
First of all, it breaks up the roots of the old plants in the ground. This kills them, so that the new plants have some room to spread out.
Tilling also adds air to the soil, which includes both oxygen for the bacteria and the worms, and nitrogen for the new plants. And finally, turning the soil also makes it easier for the plant roots to go deep into the ground once they start growing.
Once the soil is tilled, I don’t keep coming back and breaking the soil up, as it says in Isaiah. The first goal is to get the seeds into the ground so that they can start growing.
It is springtime now, and we’re beginning the growing season. I can see things starting to green up, and it is a time for a little optimism.
Unfortunately, even though the season has changed, there is still work to do. It is now a time of weeding, watering, and feeding the plants.
Lucky me… I now get the opportunity to pull out the weeds that have sprouted next to my vegetables. And weeds seem to grow faster than my plants, which I can’t figure out why… But if I don’t pull the weeds, they steal nutrients and moisture from the soil that my plants need. And since they grow faster, they could easily cast a shadow on my plants, shading them from the sunlight that gives them energy. Yes, weeds need to be pulled!
It is the season of weed-pulling now, and it will be until for a long time to come. It goes on and on, seemingly forever.
I’ll bet your work life feels like this too. You feel that all you are doing is the same-old stuff, day-after-day. Right?
Take heart. The season will change. But for you to reap the harvest, you have to stay diligent and continue to weed your garden.
Your task for today is to prepare for the changes, and start getting ready to make switch to the next task. It will be work though. But don’t give up now. Stay the course, even if it feels like you’re not making progress. I guarantee that the day of reaping will arrive, because we serve a God of “seasons.”
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
What if you knew your business was going to succeed, but that it was going to take 7 years to get to that point? Do you have the patience to wait it out and continue to do the same thing day-after-day without a reward?
Most people don’t have that patience. In fact, it is such a rare quality that you’d have a hard time naming 10 people with the trait.
Right now, here in the beginning of April of 2012, the country is going back into a recession, even though the big-3 auto makers just reported a huge gain in sales of cars. I am certain that we’re heading into a recession, because my rocketry business is a leading indicator. Discretionary purchases, like toy model rockets, are the first thing that people cut back on when times get hard. And since mid-March, I’ve seen a decline in sales of rockets.
I did expect it though, as my sales seem to follow the price of gasoline. When the price of gas goes up, discretionary spending goes down. It is only when the price stabilizes that the customers will begin returning to the spending on rockets.
Normally, it would take at least 5 or 6 months for things to stabilize after a big surge in the price of gasoline. That would put us somewhere right in the heat of the Presidential campaigns. That would happen if things were normal…
Things aren’t normal this time around. I predict that President Obama will start to see his days numbered unless he has some sort of crisis that would make him look presidential. So he is already in the beginning stages of ratcheting up the rhetoric to make himself look like a savior. The North Koreans are getting ready to test fire a long-range missile, and he is provoking the Iranians with sanctions (why now, he could have done this 2 years ago). Also, the main-stream media is trying to stir up racial tensions to make sure that his core base stays energized to vote for him. He needs the crisis, and things are going to get ugly the until the end of December.
But his days in office are indeed numbered. The Republicans are more energized than ever to get out and vote against him. That is the good news!
That gets us back to patience. In the mean time, while we wait for the geo-political climate to return to a normal level, it is important to remain calm. And while you wait, continue to do what you’ve always been doing.
In the bible, I look at the patience of Jacob as my example. He wanted to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel. In fact, he had to patiently wait for seven years.
Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”
Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. Genesis 29:18-20 (NIV)
But he wasn’t idle during those years. He did is daily duties and there is no indication that he slacked off.
So while the economy is going down with the increase in the price of gas, don’t give up what you’ve been doing. And if you’ve been reading this blog, you know that what you should be doing is to continue to “Be Fruitful.” You will reap in due season. Even in a drought, there will be some harvest.
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 Biblica. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.