A student stood in the center of the Master’s courtyard, holding a handful of heavy, dry seeds. The earth around them was cracked, barren, and scorched by weeks of summer heat.

“Master,” the student said, frustration in his voice, “you tell me to plant, but the soil is dead and the sky holds no clouds. To put these seeds into the ground now is not planting; it is burying them alive. Where is the logic in wasting good seed on dust?”

The Master walked over, knelt down, and scooped out a shallow trench in the hard earth.

“Place them in the dark,” the Master instructed softly.

The student hesitated, then let the seeds drop into the trench. The Master filled the dirt back over them, patting it flat until nothing remained visible.

“Now,” the student demanded, crossing his arms, “we just… wait? How much water must I pour, how many days must I watch, to guarantee they wake up?”

The Master stood up, brushed the dust from his hands, and looked out toward the empty horizon.

“You cannot watch them awake,” the Master said. “Faith is not the belief that the rain will come because you demand it. Faith is burying what you love in a place you cannot see, trusting that life is quietly working where your eyes cannot reach.”

The student stared at the empty ground, searching the soil for a sign.

The Master smiled and walked away. “Water the earth once, and then turn your back. If you stay here staring at the dirt, you prove you trust only what you can hold in your hand.”

FINAL THOUGHT

“He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.’” — Mark 4:26–27

Entrepreneurs: Founders often suffer from “staring at the dirt”—obsessively refreshing metrics, panicking over early churn, or constantly tweaking a product because they lack the psychological endurance to let a strategy compound in the dark. True entrepreneurial faith is building relentlessly, shipping the product into the market, and giving it the time and space to grow without suffocating it with impatience.

Investors: Venture capital and early-stage investing are the ultimate acts of burying seed capital in the dark. The best investors do not micromanage founders every day; they write the check, provide nutrients, and trust the unseen process of market adoption and team execution. Trying to “watch the seeds wake up” through constant interference usually kills the very growth you are trying to force.

You must commit your most valuable resources to a complete void, long before there is any proof of life.

— Early Boykins III