Waiting for the rain to stop

He who observes the wind will not sow, And he who regards the clouds will not reap. – Ecclesiastes 11v4

I remember way back, almost twenty years now, to our first visit to Ireland. We were staying with David and Hazel Moore in Tallaght. David and Hazel have since grown to be very dear friends. I knew nothing about the way things were done in Ireland. One day we were going to get Chinese at the closest take-away. The shop was only about a 5 minute walk, but I assumed that because it was raining we would just hop in the car. I went out the front step and headed for the wrong side of the car. David looked at me like I had two heads. ‘What are you doing?’ David asked. ‘Getting in the car,’ I said, ‘I just forgot which side.’ ‘Why are you getting in the car?’ ‘It’s raining!’ I replied. ‘So…’

You get the picture. We were walking – in the rain. ‘Do you always walk in the rain?’ I asked innocently. David said something that stuck in my mind, and I often think about today. ‘If you waited for the rain to stop in Ireland you’d never get anything done.

I thought of that when I read this passage. If you wait for the right wind you will never sow. If you wait for a sunny day you will never reap.

While it is right and wise to consider where and when to do things sometimes we get so concerned about the ‘right time’ that we never get anything done at all. We can be so concerned about the ‘signs and seasons’ that we can allow days or weeks or months or years go by.

Sometimes we just have to do it. Sometimes we have to walk in the rain.