This week’s Gospel readings discuss readiness. Anticipating years of leisure if he built barns large enough to store a bountiful harvest, a landowner’s plans did not prepare him for a life cut short. Servants risked getting caught slacking off if the master happened to return early. The owner of an orchard, ready to give up on an unproductive fig tree, agreed to let the gardener cultivate and fertilize it for one more year. Although people observed clouds and wind to predict the weather, they failed to realize how other things were going in their time. Does planning to do better tomorrow ever keep us from doing what the Lord desires today?