There’s an old saying that goes something like this: if you wait until the time is perfect to do something, you’ll never do anything.
The saying can be applied to many areas of our lives: buying a first home, getting married, going to school, having a baby or even investing.
As Solomon – considered to be the wisest king in history – wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes, “He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.” (11:4). It doesn’t require any experience with farming to understand that if you don’t sow then you can’t reap. The same is true in all areas of life; not just with agriculture.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Galatians, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. …let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Galatians 6:7, 9). Eventually, we will harvest the seeds that we spend our time in life planting. The question is, will the harvest be good?
Farmers know that the harvest season is hard; there’s a lot of labour that goes into reaping and gathering everything that was planted earlier in the year. The timing’s got to be just right for successful sowing and to reap the rewards of, well, reaping. Now just imagine if a farmer allowed him or herself to be distracted by the winds or the clouds and as a result didn’t sow any seeds or gather the harvest? They’d be at great risk of losing everything.
The same is true with how we spend our lives. Paul wrote “Be not deceived” (Galatians 6:7) because so many people are deceived. They think they have time to waste; they think that they can “have fun” now and get serious later; they think that “finding God” means never having any “freedom” again; they think that they are entitled to collect benefits without working at all; they think that they should live for today without thought for tomorrow.
The trouble is for many that tomorrow will come more quickly than they realize. Every person, regardless of what they believe, Christian or non-Christian – we will all reap what we sow. We can’t be sure of a lot of things in life, but we can be sure that, whether we are ready or not, each one of us will stand before Christ and make an account for our lives, however we have lived them (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Just like the farmer in Ecclesiastes 11:4, when we put off doing the right thing because we’re waiting for our own convenience or for the right time, then we won’t ever do the right thing, and we won’t ever receive the rewards thereof.
Paul encouraged Christians to “not be weary in well doing:” (Gal. 6:9). Why? Because well-doing can be wearying! When we look around us and see the world rewarding bad behavior, coddling criminal activity and celebrating sin, it’s hard to watch, and even harder to understand. It is wearying to continue in well-doing when the world is telling us that we are wrong.
Dr. Charles Stanley famously said, “You reap what you sow, later than you sow, and more than you sow.” This principle applies to every life and every area of life. When we are feeling weary, this is important to remember. Tomorrow is coming, the “due season” is dawning. Until then, our job is not to be observing the wind or regarding the clouds, but pressing on and not being weary in well-doing.