1 Cast your bread upon the waters,
for after many days you will find it again.

2 Give portions to seven, yes to eight,
for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

3 If clouds are full of water,
they pour rain upon the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where it falls, there will it lie.

4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

5 As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the body is formed [a] in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.

6 Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let not your hands be idle,
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.

This may be the religious version of my Droughts in life post. There is something about these verses from Ecclesiastes which brings the smell of freshly plowed dirt and sounds of bristling grass through Midwestern breezes clearly into my mind. It is almost like a song or poem written for farmers, which should ring true for everyone.

Think about this: If a farmer was fearful of whether it would rain or not, whether it would hail or not, or whether locusts would come or not, then a single crop would never be planted. Farmers cannot worry about what might happen; they have to get out there and plant!

So it is for us. We must plant, meaning we must do productive things with our lives. Uncertainty will always be present. We cannot let it get in the way of doing. Faith is doing… what better way? Whether it is faith in yourself, your religion, or in others, we need to do good works as individuals and as a society.