Trust In His Timing

For much of the United States, the month of May is considered summertime. Here on the northern plains, though, May is a month caught between spring and summer. One day the sun shines warmly on my back as I plant small seeds in my freshly tilled garden in a tank top. The next day a thin layer of snow can cover the ground as winter fights not to be forgotten.

After a long, cold winter, many of us flock to garden centers to purchase flower and vegetable plants. We plant them in pots and gardens, confident that winter has left and summer is arriving shortly. But the desperation to rid our northern selves of winter and fling headlong into summer comes with risks. A lifetime of gardening has taught me to be patient, and neighbors and friends have scolded me when I answered their garden timing questions with, “Be patient.”

“But I want early tomatoes!”

“Surely it won’t freeze again!”

May 15 is the average date of the last frost for the USDA Zone we farm in. That means half the time the last frost is after May 15, but year after year I see fellow gardeners gambling against nature by planting too early.

When I teach gardening classes, I urge my students not to set out plants until Memorial Day weekend—“A day after Memorial Day is worth two before.” A plant can’t flourish when it’s fighting to stay warm. Even if the temperature doesn’t drop below freezing, the plant will sit there and wait for warmer temperatures before experiencing any significant growth.

My garden has been an excellent teacher of life skills. I can fight the weather. I can plant my plants early and hope to catch an early spring and make it big on tomatoes and petunias. Or I can rest in the timing of the piece of God’s earth he’s given me to steward. I can trust in the rhythms of my place in this world.

In other parts of the country, you can plant earlier. If I compared my garden schedule to someone’s in Tennessee, I would have to shovel the snow from my garden to even find the soil. I could fight the cold season with artificial light and heat and tools, but all those come at a significant cost I’m not willing to pay.

However, if I wait for the right time, my plants flourish, thrive, and produce bountiful harvests. Our growing season might be short, but it is riotous. Bushels of vegetables are harvested and enjoyed—when I’ve been patient.

You might not garden, and you might not live in a harsh landscape that makes you pay for your impatience. But no matter where you live, you live a life of timing.

All parts of our lives come down to timing. Your life timing is different from mine. If I try to match my life to yours, frustration and messes will plague me. I’ll pay a significant cost if I try to rush my timeline in the hope of harvesting a big reward.

In the book of Psalms, David alternated between crying out to God in anguish over his life situation and celebrating in song when he achieved a milestone. It took his son, Solomon, who was reflecting on his life, to put the wisdom of timing into words:

For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
 A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
 A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
 A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
 A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

 What do people really get for all their hard work? I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1–11 NLT)

We cannot see everything God has in store for us, but we can trust his timing. While the rest of the country is planting and even harvesting garden produce in May, I am patient. I rest in the timing and rhythm of my place in the world, trusting that God will provide my harvest in his time.

A Brief Prayer for Patience

Dear God,

Help me to rest and wait in you.

I trust in your timing for my life.

Give me peace when I am anxious.

I trust in your timing for my life.

Prepare me for my growing season.

I trust in your timing for my life.

Annie Carlson is rooted like a turnip to the plains of North Dakota where she raises great food, large numbers of farm animals, and three free-range kids with her husband. You can find her with either a book or knitting needles in her hands as she dreams up her next adventure.

Photograph © Markus Spiske, used with permission