A Time for Everything

This Sunday we started a new series in Ecclesiastes 3, focusing on the opening words:  "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens..."

We talked Sunday about how those words that follow aren't from the perspective of taking the bad with the good, but rather that there are times in our lives when we are called to live into each of those times through out our lives:  a time to plant and a time to uproot, for example.  This is poignant, yet powerful for understanding the richness of the life God intends for us to live while here.

However, another powerful perspective comes from understanding what this chapter is saying not only about the places we'll be called to along the way, but also understanding the concept of seasons and times.  Often when I fall into a particular "season" in my life, I don't see it like I see fall, winter, or spring.  In fact, when in the midst of them, I often don't see the parts of my life as seasons.  Instead, I end up seeing them and believing that somehow they are fatal statements of the rest of my life.  For example, if I'm in a busy season of life at church, instead of embracing where I'm at and what's being asked of me, I become anxious and worry that my life as evolved into this new status and I may never leave it.

But that's why it's called a season, and that's why God breathed His words into life in Ecclesiastes 3--seasons come, and seasons go.  Some seasons last a week, some a few months, others a few years.  But no season lasts forever except the season of eternity with Jesus in heaven.  The rest, even the best, most glorious seasons, are here for only a time.  But that's often the best news we can hang onto when pursuing hope in the midst of challenging times--it won't be this way forever, and so I'll simply live it, learn from it, and find ways to point to Christ because of it.

That's when the richness of our lives comes to full life!  Embrace this season, even if it's not your favorite.


More to come!

Jason <><