Who Am I?

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what 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 throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, 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 for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3.1-8  

       To everything a season; a time to weep, a time to laugh, nothing new under the sun.  Consider this: the author of Ecclesiastes offers us wisdom about life, about balance, about how to live life to the fullest and understand the meaning of life.

       There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. How do you look at time? Do you live in the moment? Carpe Diem?  Do you live in the past? Remembering better times? That special day when Dad bought you your first bicycle? Or tragedies? When Grandma was gone, and Christmas just wasn't the same anymore?  Do you live in the future? A land of hopes and dreams? Looking forward to expectations? A new baby? A new car? Empty nesting? Retiring and taking that trip to Alaska? New Zealand?

       How you view time has a dramatic impact on how you view life. Time can be a collection of unrelated moments like a pocket of loose change, or a united stream of minutes like a fine pearl necklace. Is time a race for you? Through rush hour traffic? Getting the kids to school on time? Meeting yet another improbable, or impossible deadline?

       "There is a time for everything." That sounds like a greater implication of balance. Those great questions of man, "Who am I?", "Why am I here?" "What's it all about?" Are they all influenced by time?

       Wise men and philosophers have spent their lives trying to understand good and evil - Ying and Yang - God and Satan. How about you? Have you figured it out? What is "a season for every activity under heaven?" Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, the four seasons immediately come to mind. What about seasons of life: Birth, Childhood, Adolescence, Parenting, Late Middle Age, Death? Or seasons of carefree play, school, work and a career, then retirement?

       Have you ever considered a Season of Friendship? As a small child you may have spent a lot of time with your best friend. Then you moved. Or they moved. Or you spent more time with other kids, and the friendship changed. The season changed.

       King Solomon, who is often identified as the author of this book,  has been called the wisest man who ever lived. He saw the changing, and the recurring seasons of life. He studied them, and described his thoughts. In Ecclesiastes he talked about life, work, time, and God. If the wisest man in the world thought these questions were important - well, maybe they are worth considering.

Prayer: Gracious God, continue to reveal Your time to us.  Help us to be as wise as Solomon and as compassionate and forgiving as Jesus.  Do not let time drive us.  You drive our lives and we benefit when we listen. Amen.