A Time For Everything

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

    a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
    a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
    a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
    a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
    a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
    a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

This is one of the most enduring poems in history. And yet it makes most of us feel a bit uncomfortable. We wonder, How does it line up with all that talk of victory in the Bible? And what about Jesus’s teaching about God always answering prayer? And so on.

In so many ways, what’s really going on is our desire not to face reality - not to have to let go of things, not to have to refrain from embracing, not to have to be silent, or whatever. Of course we recognize the truthfulness of these lines, but the emotional impact of them can feel somewhere between grating and overwhelming.

Read over these verses again with a bent towards holy listening. Which season is standing out to you? And is it because that’s the season you are in or because it is the season you are resisting? What might God be saying to you in these words today?