He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. (Eccl 11:4)
If a farmer spends such a significant amount of time observing the wind that he fails to sow seed, the results can be devastating.
If he watches the passing clouds day after day without ever reaping, a great deal of past effort will be wasted.
Easy enough to understand, right? But what if we modernize this ancient principle and make it more personal?
Consider the winds of social media, how they blow. You digitally hop from Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest to Instagram, and by the time you’re finished looking at square filtered photos, Facebook has produced a fresh waft of status updates. This familiar loop can be (and is) repeated. Over and over again.
Cue the ancient principle: He who observes the digital wind will not sow.
The Internet never sleeps. Bits of information are perpetually floating from person-to-person, smartphone-to-smartphone, computer-to-computer, 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week, 365-days-a-year. The dings, vibrations, and updates never stop.
Cue the ancient principle: He who regards the digital clouds will not reap.
You wouldn’t dream of spending the rest of today staring at the clouds. You’ve got too many important responsibilities.
Why, then, would you spend the rest of today observing the digital wind when there is so much sowing and reaping to be done?