A Time for Everything

My last post was composed as I headed home from church yesterday morning. Amazing how words just drop in my mind and heart. I was blinded by the light of the sun as I drove directly into it. I thought of the warmth that surrounded the picture that a friend sent to me. I wanted to be in the fire of the sun, somewhere not in the cold winter of Indiana. Yet, I felt warm within. My soul was content with where I was. Although tired from my overnight shift, I felt within the glow of a fire, rich in hot coals, and then saw the fire ignite as it was flamed by the wind. I felt God's love for me, and I was content, knowing that soon, the snow would be gone and the trees would show forth buds bursting with new life! Then it hit me. As we journey through the life that God hands us, there are many seasons. King Solomon wrote a beautiful passage in Ecclesiastes about Time:

A Time for Everything

1 For everything there is a season,

a time for every activity under heaven.

2 A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to harvest.

3 A time to kill and a time to heal.

A time to tear down and a time to build up.

4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.

A time to grieve and a time to dance.

5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.

A time to embrace and a time to turn away.

6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.

A time to keep and a time to throw away.

7 A time to tear and a time to mend.

A time to be quiet and a time to speak.

8 A time to love and a time to hate.

A time for war and a time for peace.

It is with these thoughts that I pictured the bud bursting in Spring, seeing the moment that it shed its cover and life again abounded. God gave us seasons in our life so that we have tomorrow to which to look forward, for without, we would be stuck in the quagmire of today. If today is one of those joyous days, then we move forth with passion and live life to the fullest. Yet, all seasons have an end, or at least a change. We grow older. Our children grow up and become men and women from the bodies and souls that we treasure as children. Look at Silas, my four-year old. How could anyone want him to mature beyond his present innocence! Yet, this is a season in his life, and mine to behold.

The agony of death, the toll it takes on our souls. Whether its a true passing to the other side, or a death of a relationship, or a loved one that chooses to rob himself of his heritage as the prodigal son, the toll it has on the soul is like the icy, wintry storm that grips one to inaction and fear. Yet, God did not give us a spirit of fear. No! He gives us a spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind! So, in our season of despair we look forward to the season of Joy when the buds that remained in His protection can burst forth with His Love, His Grace, and His Forgiveness that is unsurpassed by man.

There are times that we must forgive God. I know it may sound blasphemous. How can man forgive the God who allowed forgiveness through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross? Yet, forgiveness of the heart is not blasphemy, and God abides in our heart. Until we can let go of the pain that we are holding within, holding only for our own self protection, we cannot grow in the season of Spring that He has for each and everyone of us! Yes, we hold onto pain, grief, disappointment and make them friends. They become our closest companions. They sleep with us, have breakfast with us, walk through our day with us, and bar us from letting go of their worthless souls by making us feel empty if they were gone.

There is another story, and this is mine. I am not unlike most of us who have experienced the heartache of death. We have all been there in some form. My heart was hallow, emptied of any love, like, or any attitude for living. I was in my dead season, the dark times of walking endlessly through the maze of tunnels in the basement of life, searching for the way out. I read further through the story of life, for mine is no better than this:

“What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.”

From this wisdom I decided, I made a choice to grasp each one of His powerful gifts to move forward into a season of renewal:

a time to be born,

a time to plant,

a time to heal,

a time to build,

a time to laugh,

a time to dance,

a time to gather stones,

a time to embrace,

a time to search,

a time to keep,

a time to mend,

a time to speak,

a time to love,

and a time for peace.


With this, a time to grow tomorrow's fruit of Joy!


God bless your day! ~jeff


Quotes are expressed from Ecclesiastes 3 in the Word of God.

© Jeff Cambridge 2011

Originally published January 31, 2011