Investments are fun when you can see the return. Waiting on those returns or slow results drives us crazy. I remember as a kid planting seeds in a cup or small planter, giving them a little water and then expecting to see them grow before my very eyes. Funny, no matter how long you sat there you could never see those things emerge from the soil and begin to grow. I expected things to happen quickly, like watching a time lapse video. But it never happened.
Eventually my plants would emerge from the soil and slowly begin their growth. But it never happened the way I wanted it to or thought it should. I'm still amazed today at how plants grow when you're not watching them. I planted my cucumbers a month ago. It fascinates me that they send out those feelers and how they wrap them several times around my wire trellis as they grow. I never see them do it. But some time they reach out grab onto it as they begin to climb. How do they know that the trellis is even there?
The things of God baffle me. His design and how the universe operates is so complex yet so interesting. It's how God works in all of life. Sometimes I think I've got Him figured out or how the formula works, only discover things don't work quite the way I think. I get confused with how God works or why He does or doesn't do things. He messes with my mind and there are times I think He does it on purpose.
Several times in scriptures God explains to us that His ways are not our ways. So why does my faith get rattled when I come up against it. I've got everything figured out and God decides to do things in a very different, sometimes opposite way. That jars me. It sets me back a little bit. I grow frustrated and even irritated.
Since I don't know how God always works, I've learned that I just have to keep plugging away. I can't stop investing my life into Kingdom work, no matter what my situation. This Ecclesiastes passage is indicative of how God does work and what He simply wants from us. He tells to cast our bread on the water and after many days we will find it. Many days in my mind is like a week or so. But it God's timing it could be years. Don't you wish that God would give you the timetable? But He doesn't.
A lot of people wait on God to give some spectacular sign or speak to them before begin to invest their life or resources or extend themselves. Ecclesiastes says that those people who are looking for the perfect conditions will never reap anything. When I was younger people would tell me not to wait until everything is perfect before you start having kids or you won't have any. The same is true about Kingdom investing. Conditions will never be perfect, so just start sowing. According to verse 6 you sow in the morning and sow in the evening, because we never know when it's going to take root.
Some people are like me planting the seed in a cup. They sow their seed and expect to see immediate results. When it doesn't happen they stop sowing and watering and lose all expectations. Since we don't know when or how that seed will germinate, we have to keep that hope alive and trust God that He knows what He's doing.
Everybody wants to enjoy the fruit of the harvest, but not everyone gets to. Paul says the he plants, Apollos waters, and God gives the increase. Somehow we think we're should get to do the harvesting, but all God asks us to do is the planting, cultivating, nurturing, watering, etc. He reserves the harvesting for Himself. God may just have us doing nothing but weeding. It's not a very glamorous job, but one that has to be done.
For those us results oriented individuals, God's methods and God's way can sometimes be exasperating. I get depressed when things don't go the way I think they should or the way I've planned it. It makes it hard not to just through our hands in the air and move on. But God calls us to keep investing, morning, evening, noon, etc. because we never know what's He's going to use to His glory.
God, I like to see things happen. I'm a dreamer. It's discouraging, even depressing when you invest so much and see little return. Yet I know this isn't about me. It's about you and your Kingdom. As your servant all you ask me to do is to give myself fully everyday for you. God, help stop worrying about the results and just be your servant. Strengthen me God for today. Show me what you want me to do today. Let me see with your eyes and let me act with your heart and hands and voice.
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