The Power of Doing Nothing (1) By Babatunde Olugboji
The new series we are starting this week provides an insight into the need to recognize that there is a time for everything and a season for every activity. (Ecclesiastes 3:1) In other words, there are times when there is power in being still.
In Matthew 13, Jesus narrated a number of parables relating to the seed: the parables of the sower; mustard seed and the yeast; the hidden treasure and the pearl; and the weeds. In this series, we will be focusing on the parable of the weeds. Note that in all these parables, Jesus used a botanical metaphor to get his message across.
Jesus decided to use a metaphor the disciples could understand to effectively communicate and explain something so spiritual and abstract that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to grasp. In those days everyone understood the importance of a good harvest. It was the difference between survival and starvation, between having a roof over your head and being homeless. Poor harvest meant reduced income; no crop meant it would be a challenging year. The strength of the crop determined the net worth of the owner; consistently excellent harvest meant good income, bad harvest equaled diminished revenue.
The parables were based on the primacy of sowing and reaping. The preeminence of a consistent cycle survival depended on someone’s ability to keep the cycle of sowing and reaping going. Remember, seedtime and harvest time is a key kingdom principle: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest…shall not cease.” (Genesis 8:22)
Matthew 13 on the surface was about botany, but in reality, it wasn’t about crops, plants, but about value, integrity, time, timing, wisdom, and other deep things of the spirit. Both sowing and reaping is hard work. If God sends blessing and you don’t have the work ethic to utilize it, the blessing may take you down. If God opens the windows of heaven and pours down a blessing that you don’t have room enough to contain, that blessing may drown you. If God gives you an opportunity but you don’t have the character not just to receive it, but to sustain it, that opportunity may fizzle away like a puff of smoke.
In Matthew 13: 24-30, the sower sowed good seed in his field and sent his servants to tend the field, but while they slept, the enemy planted weeds. Let me first address the issue of timing, which is at the heart of this series. The enduring solution to a lot of things has to do with time and timing. Food preparation is about timing. Baking a cake is about timing. The difference between a dry and moist cake is timing. If it stays in the oven too long, it will turn out dry. Parenting is about timing. Marriage is about timing. You can complete a wedding in 30 minutes, but you need a lifetime to have a good marriage. 
There are things that take time to mature. It took Joseph’s many dreams time to manifest. There are things you learn from tests, trials and errors. You have to understand seasons and times. Some people in your life are seasonal relationships. Opportunities are seasonal. A season may cease but that doesn’t mean the blessing has ceased. You need to know the time to plant and to harvest. But you can’t have a new season until you are willing to say goodbye to the other season. Don’t wrestle to hold onto what God is trying to take away. Release it. Embrace the new season. Paul said: When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11.
To be continued
Have a great week.
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