Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will
go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and
make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You
are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or
that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.
Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it
is sin. (James 4:13-17)
I seemed to be cursed when it comes to growing sunflowers! It happened again!
(Yes, it has happened before.) I planted a 16 foot long row of sunflower seeds.
They all came up—were about 1 ½ inches high and THICK. The way they came up, I
suspected there were too many for all of them to disappear.
I made a plan to protect them by making a small, convenient fence around the
flower bed (18 inch chicken wire). Bill and Toka Beall stopped by to see us
Thursday night. Bill confirmed that what I planned to do would work. My Friday
project was set! I knew where to get what I wanted—by early Friday afternoon my
solution against past harm would be in place! I saw the potential problem, in my
head I solved that problem, and my reasoned out solution should work!
Friday morning I left for the gym about 6 a.m. (as usual). For some reason, I
decided to check my sunflower plants one more time before I bought my supplies.
You guessed it—Thursday night a critter ate the whole row (all but one—left to
taunt me?).
Oh, well, I could be philosophical and say it happened before I bought the
supplies. However, at that moment, I did not feel philosophical. All I felt was
this: the critters won—again! I cringe when I think of how many times “dumb”
animals made me feel dumb! Good intentions and well-made plans do not produce
protection just by thinking!
The lessons in this silly incident are rather profound. It is amazing what we
can learn from squirrels, rabbits, or nocturnal critters in general.
1. Never take tomorrow for granted. It is so easy to decide whatever is will
always be. Do not assume that what should be done now will wait on you to do it
later. Simply because you see and understand the potential problem does not mean
you have solved the problem.
2. When you know enough to think the situation through, act. Surely, there are
consequences to taking action before you know what you need to know. Surely,
(also) there are consequences to procrastinating. Rarely will there be a
“perfect” time to make a difficult decision. However, making a difficult choice
is almost always better than making no choice at all, thus allowing “accident”
or “random happenstance” to make the choice for you.
3. Never ignore the “God factor.” We are not as big as we think we are!
Could we call this the parable of the sunflower plants and lessen my
disappointment?
Link to other
Writings of David Chadwell
