day 489: A Farmer’s Lesson

The other day I heard someone use the old adage, “we have to make hay while the sun is shining”. We probably all have used that line at some point in our lives, regardless if we were ever farmers or not. It’s a good lesson and one that can make us work a little harder and be more productive in the times when we may want to slack off. However, there is another lesson that the farmer probably knows better than anyone and that is that regardless of the conditions, work must get done everyday if the crops are going to grow and yield the produce at harvest time. Sure, there are sunny days but there are also rainy days, cold days, oppressively hot days and days that are so windy, foggy and dreary that all you want to do is roll back over into bed and wait for the weather to clear. If a farmer only waited for the best conditions then not much would get done. We do this at work too; we look for other conditions than the weather to direct our attention and efforts. We wait for the mood of the boss to be right, we look for the day of no meetings before we start on the project, we put off making the return phone call until the afternoon is clear to talk. Basically, we wait until the weather is clear. The lesson is that the conditions are never quite perfect and that we have to put our shoulders down and “weather the storm” if we want to get things done. In Ecclesiastes Solomon opines the same; “If you wait for the perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.” Today, you may have some piece of work that you really need to get done but you have been in waiting mode for just the right conditions before you start, complete, present or send it in. Those perfect conditions might show up, but more than likely there will be something else that gets in the way that disrupts perfection. Consider today as the best conditions you will have and like the farmer, just get out in the field and get it done.

Reference: Ecclesiastes 11:4 (New Living Testament)