day 766: Harvesting

"And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up."

I advise and invest in start-ups. I am used to speed-to-market as a principle of operating, and tomorrow not being discussed as much as today, and what we need to get done, right now. Recently, one of the companies I invested in went through a funding raise and it was not an easy one. Not because it isn't a great group of people with a really great business idea, but because of lots of the usual factors that can get in the way of getting a round completed quickly. While in the scheme of things, it didn't take that long, it felt like forever. Daily, sometimes hourly, we would move along the paperwork, and then sit and wait and sit and wait. This went on and on, until there were days that the CEO was ready to give up. This year I planted a garden for the first time in years. In June I put out three tomato plants and then we went away for the summer. When we came back, the tomato plants were huge and we had hundreds of delicious tomatoes. In September I put out some lettuce, broccoli, swiss chard and onions. Every day I go out to see how they are growing. They seem to grow so slowly I wonder if I will ever get anything from them. If you have read this far, you are probably wondering, what is this guy trying to say? In all things, business, gardening, life, there is a season of harvest that doesn't come overnight. Oh sure, every once in a lifetime there is the overnight success, but how many of those last through the test of time? Businesses that get it right, stick with it and then don't get tired or discouraged until they reach their harvest time, will tend to live on longer.

The same can be said in this daily walk that we make with Christ as His followers. There are harvest times and we see them here on earth, and then there is the super harvest that we will all experience eternally that we can get glimpses of as we continue faithfully on our walk. If we stay committed, there is a harvest of blessing that is coming. It's the time of year when the leaves fall from the tree and winter starts to blow in days of what is to come. At the same time the leaves are falling, a farmer is harvesting the fields. It may well be that it feels like the harvest will never come or that more leaves are falling than should be. Work, the job, the company, any of them may not be exactly what you want them to be right now and it's getting discouraging. Let's today, on this Fall Friday in harvest season, recommit to worKING into the harvest, not giving up, and staying committed! God has a blessing for us and a harvest that He wants us to reap. Let's together enthusiastically push forward to that day!

Reference: Galatians 6:9