A Season for Every Thing

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.


I am in the depths of despair and the heights of exultations. How is that possible? How have I found a season of rejoicing at what is conceivably the lowest point of my existence?

I’m not sure except that I am promised that there is a time and season for every thing in this world.

I was born and just as surely as that event took place, I will die. This means I have the opportunity to live in between those events. I have planted hopes and dreams and those have been plucked from me.

I feel that a part of me has been killed in the process. I am looking for my time to heal my physical, emotional and spiritual being. In that process, I am breaking down and hopefully building up.

I have wept and laughed. I am mourning that which I have lost and I hope to find the heart and joy to dance again.

I don’t want to cast stones but I’m willing to gather and build up. I have embraced joy and love and now find I refrain from embracing.

I have gotten and lost; I have kept and consider casting away.

My heart and spirit is torn and I want to have it bound up again. I have kept my silence and now I am speaking up for the first time in years. I have found my own voice at last.

I don’t want to hate or have war but I look forward with hope to a time to love and to obtain peace at last. I know peace exists; I just have to find it.

I know I will find it because to every thing there is a season. There will someday be a season of peace and rest for me. And that is my hope of my current season.

The Game of Life

The night is cold and the wind is blowing so hard that the windows rattle in their frames. As a result the girls are staying in tonight and brought out the board game "Life" to pass the time. If only life was so easy to live as the spin of a dial and a cardboard colored board slots with life choices on it.

Those choices, do you want to be married, have kids, college, career? are so difficult and confusing even to this well-seasoned veteran of life. I'm 43 years old and I'm facing a new year with a multitude of life changes. How to choose? If only there was a dial I could spin that would tell me which direction to go.

I watched my grandmother this weekend at her 90th birthday party and considered all the life choices and changes she has seen and survived. I looked around the room full of my family and considered all the paths, perils and pitfalls they have faced individually and together. And I find myself looking for the wheel to spin.

Unfortunately, there is no wheel to spin and the choices I make this year affect myself and my family. I have to choose carefully and not let the "what might have beens" and the "what ifs" paralyze me. What path will I take this year? I don't know yet but am thankful I still have a chance to choose my own wheel to spin.