“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”
GALATIANS 6:9
A STORY: THE MAN WHO PLANTED TREES HE WOULD NEVER SIT UNDER
In a quiet village, there lived an old man who planted trees every year at the edge of the community road. He was never seen harvesting fruit from them. Children mocked him. Travelers questioned him. Some villagers laughed, saying, “Why waste strength on what you will not enjoy?”
One day, a young boy asked him directly, “Sir, why do you keep planting when you are already old?”
The man smiled and replied, “Because I have enjoyed the shade of trees I did not plant.”
Years passed. The old man died. The trees grew tall. Travelers rested under them. Children played beneath them. Fruit fed the hungry. The village prospered quietly.
No monument bore his name.
Yet his goodness kept speaking.
Goodness, like those trees, works slowly. But when it finally speaks, it speaks for generations.
THE NATURE OF SLOW INVESTMENTS
Fast investments promise excitement.
Slow investments promise stability.
Goodness belongs to the second category.
It does not make a noise.
It does not trend.
It does not demand immediate applause.
Goodness works the way roots work, hidden, patient, unseen. While the world celebrates speed, goodness honors process. While society rewards instant gain, goodness prepares for long harvests.
Anything that matures too quickly rarely lasts.
Anything that lasts was once willing to grow slowly.
WHY GOODNESS FEELS UNREWARDING AT FIRST
Goodness often feels unfair in the beginning because it delays gratification. The human mind craves feedback, proof that effort is not wasted. When goodness is met with silence, rejection, or even exploitation, doubt creeps in.
This is why many abandon goodness halfway.
Not because goodness failed, but because the reward schedule did not match their expectations.
Goodness does not operate on human clocks. It runs on moral time, which is slower but more accurate.
THE INNER ARCHITECTURE OF A GOOD PERSON
A good person is not naive; they are disciplined.
They have trained their inner world to value integrity over impulse, character over convenience, long-term peace over short-term advantage.
Goodness strengthens self-control.
It builds emotional endurance.
It creates harmony between belief and action.
When a person consistently chooses goodness, their inner life becomes less fragmented. They sleep better. They live lighter. They carry less internal conflict.
Goodness may cost you externally, but it rewards you internally first.
GOODNESS AS RESISTANCE IN A CORRUPT WORLD
In a world where deception pays fast, goodness looks like weakness.
But goodness is not passivity, it is resistance.
It refuses to become what it opposes.
It refuses to rot just because decay is profitable.
It refuses to borrow evil’s tools to fight evil.
To remain good in a compromised system requires courage, clarity, and endurance. It is easier to blend in. It is harder to stand clean.
Yet history never remembers those who blended in.
THE DELAYED ECHO OF GOODNESS
Goodness has an echo effect.
It may not return immediately to the giver, but it returns somewhere, in relationships, in legacy, in inner peace, in unseen protection.
Some returns arrive as trust.
Some arrive as favor.
Some arrive as doors that only character can open.
Goodness stores value in places money cannot reach.
THE LAW OF SOWING WITHOUT PANIC
Goodness aligns with divine order.
Righteousness is never rushed because eternity is not threatened by time. When you do good, you are not just behaving well, you are participating in a moral structure that outlives you.
Goodness is faith in action.
It says, “Truth eventually outlives lies.”
It says, “Justice may delay, but it does not disappear.”
Heaven never panics.
Neither should goodness.
WHY GOODNESS SHAPES THE FUTURE QUIETLY
Goodness rarely announces itself, but it builds cultures.
Families survive because someone chose patience.
Communities heal because someone chose forgiveness.
Nations endure because someone refused corruption.
Most futures are not shaped by dramatic revolutions but by quiet, repeated acts of goodness that stabilize the moral ground beneath society.
Goodness does not just change outcomes, it changes atmospheres.
THE STRENGTH HIDDEN IN STAYING KIND
Kindness is often misunderstood as softness. In reality, sustained kindness requires strength.
It takes strength to remain kind when wounded.
It takes strength to remain fair when cheated.
It takes strength to remain honest when lying is rewarded.
Weak people react.
Strong people choose.
Goodness is a choice repeated until it becomes power.
WHEN GOODNESS FINALLY SPEAKS
There comes a season when goodness speaks without words.
When people begin to trust you instinctively.
When your presence brings calm.
When your name opens doors you never knocked on.
By the time goodness speaks publicly, it has already worked privately for a long time.
The harvest surprises everyone except the one who kept sowing.
LIVING AS A LONG-TERM GIFT TO THE WORLD
To live in goodness is to live as a gift, not a transaction.
You may not see all the returns.
You may not enjoy all the benefits.
But you will leave the world better structured than you met it.
Goodness does not rush to be rewarded.
It trusts that time is an ally.
And time always honors what is true.
“The tree that gives shade today was planted by someone who believed in tomorrow.”
African Reflection
