Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. ECCLESIASTES 11:4 (NLT)

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Don’t sit there watching the wind. Do your own work.
Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on with your life.
The Message

If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.
The Living Bible

Timing is important. The right thing at the wrong time leads to the wrong results. This simple truth is easily grasped and applied. Most of the time. 

• When is the right time for children to return to classroom instruction during a pandemic?
• When is the right time for churches to return to full worship centers with singing, hugging, and handshakes?
• When is the right time for athletes to compete up close and personal?
• When is the right time to return to moving about the country on crowded airplanes?

The right thing at the wrong time in these cases could prove dangerous or disastrous. 

You have no doubt heard the old saying, “Fortune favors the brave.” You may also be familiar with the famous last words of a redneck: “Watch this.”

Early on in this book, Solomon said, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven,” (3:1). The Byrds turned that into a memorable melody called Turn, Turn, Turn. The trick, or wisdom, is knowing what season we are in and what time of the season it is. 

• Is it time to be bold and brave? Or is it time to watch and wait? 
• Is it time to declare our freedoms? Or is it time to take responsible actions?
• Is it time to be quiet? Or is it time to speak?

What time is it where you are and where you stand? What time is it with what you face? If you had to decide right now, what would you do?

In every season of our lives, there are opportunities. Some people seize those opportunities and succeed with maximum expression. Others wait and miss the boat, not realizing their ship had come in. 

How do we decide what to do when we do not know what to do and when so much is riding on our decisions?

A couple of questions come to mind. 

What season are we in? The season determines the game which dictates the rules. One college football conference boldly stated this week, “We are not playing this fall. We will wait until spring.” Another conference said, “We are playing this fall. Spring is for baseball. And spring football.”

What season is it? Is it time to plant or time to harvest? Is it time to kill or time to heal? Is it time to tear down or time to build up?

This much is sure: It is both a time to cry and a time to laugh. The same politician who a month ago made a passionate plea to protect our children by not sending them to school said last week just as passionately that we must send our children to school or our economy will collapse. 

Defining the season determines the rules we play by. Just as having two college football seasons in the same academic year seems crazy, so should it sound crazy to place people at unnecessary risk of long-term health complications or death. Sometimes we have to face the facts that this is no ordinary time and the ordinary rules do not apply. Adjustments must be made for the good of everyone. This is no momentary blip. This is a turning point. 

The USA wanted to stay out of World War II. It tinkered around the edges by providing equipment for our allies. Then we were attacked. Thousands died. Farmers and factory workers and captains of industry saw their sons march off to war against two tribes intent on ruling the world by force. That generation, now known as The Greatest, knew what time it was. They understood the season. They stopped watching the wind and staring at clouds and fought and died and built and rebuilt until the whole world was safe for a season.

We are living history here. How will it be written? Whatever we do next will tell the tale. 

This is a time to hit our knees in prayer every day. This is a time to get up and do the hard next right thing. This is a time to stop listening to competing voices shouting their party lines and do what needs to be done right now that is the best for all concerned.

As soon as you know the right thing to do, do it. No more waiting for politicians to get their acts together. No more waiting for big shot preachers to stop shouting over one another. No more waiting for lawyers to tell us what we can and cannot do. Lives are on the line. We have been attacked. How will we fight back?

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I will wait until waiting is sin. I will start when it is time to begin.

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Our Father, we need your wisdom and direction for this season. We need wise leaders who make mature decisions in the best interest of all people everywhere. Make us those kinds of leaders in each of our domains. Give us clarity for what is before us today and in the remainder of this season. Do not allow us to be distracted by all the voices clamoring for our attention and allegiance. Give us ears to hear what you alone say and the courage and conviction to follow wherever you lead. Amen.