This week the National Federation of Independent Business released its monthly survey of small business owners. Only 7 percent said now is a good time to expand, down five points in a single month. Their Uncertainty Index climbed to 90. The long-term average is 68.
In plain language, a lot of business owners are holding on to what they have. They’re keeping cash close, putting off the new truck, waiting on the hire, and watching the news.
That may be exactly right. Or it may be the most expensive decision they make all year. The hard part is knowing which.
The Seventh Pair
Solomon’s next line sounds strange to modern ears, but every farmer and builder in his day would have understood it:
“A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones.”
ECCLESIASTES 3:5, NKJV
The Hebrew word for “cast away” is shalak (Strong’s H7993). It means to throw, to fling, to send something out of your hand. A farmer clearing a new field would shalak every stone he found so the plow could do its work.
The word for “gather” is kanas (Strong’s H3664), to collect, to pile up, to bring together. A builder would kanas stones for a wall, a house, or a terrace. It’s the same word Solomon used a chapter earlier when he looked back on his own fortune: “I also gathered for myself silver and gold” (Ecclesiastes 2:8, NKJV).
Stones were a resource. Sometimes the wise thing was to collect them and hold them. Sometimes the wise thing was to throw them out of your hands. Every business owner lives with that same question: is this a season to gather, or a season to cast?
A Time to Gather
The best business plan in the Old Testament belongs to Joseph. Pharaoh dreamed of seven fat cows and seven thin ones, and God gave Joseph the meaning: seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph’s advice was simple. Gather now, while it’s good.
“Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable.”
GENESIS 41:49, NKJV
When the famine came, Egypt was the only nation ready for it.
Proverbs points to an even smaller teacher:
“Go to the ant, you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise, which, having no captain, overseer or ruler, provides her supplies in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.”
PROVERBS 6:6-8, NKJV
Nobody has to tell the ant that winter is coming. She gathers in the good season because she knows the hard one will follow. That’s what a cash reserve is. That’s what a line of credit opened before you need it is. That’s what cross-training your people is, so one resignation doesn’t shut down a department. Gathering in a good season isn’t fear. It’s wisdom.
But Jesus told a story about a man who gathered for the wrong reason. His land produced so well that he ran out of room, so he decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones:
“And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’”
LUKE 12:19-20, NKJV
The difference between Joseph and the rich fool wasn’t how much they gathered. It was why. Joseph gathered so he could give it out when people needed it. The rich fool gathered so he could stop. Jesus summed it up: “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21, NKJV).
A Time to Cast Away
Joseph’s story doesn’t end with full storehouses. When the famine came, “Joseph opened all the storehouses” (Genesis 41:56, NKJV). The gathering had a purpose, and when the time came, he let it go. If he had kept those doors shut, all that grain would have rotted in the barns while people starved outside.
That’s the risk of a season like this one. When uncertainty is high, holding on feels responsible. And sometimes it is. But there’s a point where gathering turns into hoarding, and caution turns into fear.
Jesus told about a servant who reached that point. His master gave him one talent to invest while he was away. When the master came back, the servant brought it to him untouched:
“And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.”
MATTHEW 25:25, NKJV
He didn’t lose a penny. And his master was furious, because the servant had let fear make the decision. The money was safe. The opportunity was gone.
Proverbs says it in a way every business owner should read twice:
“There is one who scatters, yet increases more; and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.”
PROVERBS 11:24, NKJV
Solomon wrote the same principle a few chapters after our passage:
“Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. Give a serving to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what evil will be on the earth.”
ECCLESIASTES 11:1-2, NKJV
Notice what he’s describing. Send it out. Spread it around. Don’t put everything in one place. That’s not reckless. It’s diversified, faithful, open-handed business.
What does casting stones look like on Monday morning? It might be the hire you’ve been putting off because the numbers aren’t perfect. The piece of equipment that would pay for itself in eighteen months. The training budget for the young manager who’s ready to grow. The generous bonus at Christmas for the crew that carried you through a hard year. The gift to the family down the road who’s struggling. Some stones are meant to be thrown out of your hands, because that’s the only way they ever do anyone any good.
The question isn’t whether gathering is right or casting is right. Both are. The question is which season you’re actually in, and whether you’re deciding out of wisdom or out of fear.
Stones That Remember
There’s one more kind of stone-gathering in Scripture, and it may be the most important one for a business owner.
When Israel finally crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, God told Joshua to have twelve men each pick up a stone from the middle of the riverbed and stack them where they camped that night. The reason:
“That this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD.”
JOSHUA 4:6-7, NKJV
Those stones weren’t for building anything. They were for remembering. When the next hard season came, and it always does, Israel could look at that pile and say, God brought us through before.
Every business that has lasted more than a few years has a pile of stones like that. The year the biggest customer walked away and you made payroll anyway. The time the bank said no and another door opened. The deal that fell through and turned out to be a mercy. Gather those stories. Tell them to your people. Write them down for your kids. In a season when the Uncertainty Index is at 90, remembering what God has already done is one of the wisest things a business owner can gather.
The Stone That Matters Most
The Psalmist wrote about one stone above all the others:
“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.”
PSALM 118:22-23, NKJV
Jesus applied that verse to Himself (Matthew 21:42), and Peter told believers that we are now “living stones” being “built up a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5, NKJV). Everything else we gather and everything we cast away eventually passes through someone else’s hands. But a life built on that cornerstone lasts. That’s the eternal perspective Solomon pointed to when he wrote that God “has put eternity in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11, NKJV).
For the Owner with a Quiet Weekend
If you get a quiet hour this weekend, take a look at your own pile of stones. What are you holding that should stay in the storehouse? What are you holding out of fear that should have been put to work months ago? And what stories of God’s faithfulness in your business have you forgotten to tell?
Those aren’t easy questions to sort out alone. Sometimes it helps to sit across the table from someone who has made those calls himself, someone who will listen first and then help you look at it all from God’s point of view. If that would help, I’d be glad to talk.
Kenneth Ray Peden
Senior Consultant
Eternal Perspective Consulting
eternalperspectiveconsulting.com
(903) 699-0973
Kenneth@eternalperspectiveconsulting.com