Uncertain Conditions are the Perfect Conditions

“Send your grain across the seas,
 and in time, profits will flow back to you. But divide your investments among many places, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead. When clouds are heavy, the rains come down.
 Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls. Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant.
If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.”- [Ecc.11: 1-6]

A watched pot never boils. I swear if you stair at a clock long enough it starts to go backwards. I think that happened to me once in Economics in High School. Waiting on the "perfect" timing for some things is the same as waiting for pot to boil, or thinking if you look at the clock every min. somehow that will speed up time!

What keeps us from taking risks? For many of us, it’s the fear of the unknown. We want some kind of guarantee before step out onto the ocean. We don’t want to ask the question(s), make the move, have the tough conversation, take the leap of faith all because we don’t know what will happen when we do—we have no control.

There are some things in life that we can be pretty sure of. For example, when a cloud is heavy, the rains come down. But, where the tree falls…that we don’t know or can even control.

It doesn’t happen all the time, but sometimes I am so desperate for a Word from the Lord on a situation that in his mercy he will drop it in my lap. That is what happened as I laid in bed praying over a situation and what I should do.

My excuse was I would wait until the right opportunity presented itself to say/ask what I wanted to ask. I as scared to death of the outcome of the other person answer.

As I prayed about Romans 12:2 kept repeating in my mind, “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

I knew the only way I was going to gain the wisdom to know what to do in my situation was to open the Scriptures. I’d begun reading through the Book of John, but before I got there I wanted to look at “the verse of the day” on my Bible App.

Low and behold, my eyes fell on Ecc. 11:5-6. I clicked on the verses to read all of it in context and my heart leaped at how this perfect this fit with my situation. But at the same time it challenged me. If I was going to just sit around and wait for the “right” circumstance to fall in my lap then nothing was ever going to happen.

I had no control over the outcome, but if I did nothing I also would never know.

There comes a time when we’re called to “plant the seed.” Do what you can, say what needs to be said, take the steps of faith you know to take and then trust God with the outcome.

“Plant the seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon…” (i.e. don’t worry about it).

Although my nervous at the thought of having this one particular conversation have not totally gone away, I also know that I can’t sit around and wait for “perfect conditions” to ask what I need/want to ask this person.

Especially because we work together, there never really is a “good” time. Use discernment and wisdom, but waiting for it to be “the perfect moment”…yeah that’s not going to happen.

Maybe your situations is similar to mine or totally different, but we all have or have had situations were (in fear) we want all conditions to be “just right” before we plant our seed (so to speak).

But there comes a time when we, in faith, have to put the seed in the ground and trust the Lord with the harvest.