A Time to Weep and a Time to Laugh

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 3:1-9

The Bible excels at forcing us to hold tension, doesn’t it? Just think about the idea of the Trinity - three persons within God; or how it portrays Jesus as both fully human and fully God. These mysteries can feel a bit academic at times, but they cast a long shadow into the realities we face each day, including how we are invited into holding tension between the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ experiences of life. There’s a sense in which our whole faith journey, from the intellectual ideas of who God is to the emotional content of what it looks like to life out our faith, is filled with tension. And the capacity to hold tension is one of the clearest markers of maturity.

This week we’re heading into a period of lament. How willing are you to embrace that tension, along with all the good things in your life as well? Can you weep and mourn, and not just laugh and dance? Without your faith crumbling, can you engage with hate and death, even though you’d prefer love and healing?

Today, spend some time with Jesus talking about the tension it is to follow him. Name the things you’d rather not have to integrate into your life and ask the Spirit to increase your capacity to hold that tension this week. (And then keep an eye open to watch how you mature.)