Things are changing. Maybe not even changing, but different from the expected.
I expect to see red and yellow leaves falling with a bright blue sky as a backdrop on a crisp and cool day. But instead I've seen snow.
The farmers expect to spend long days in their combines, bringing in the corn and beans before winter hits. Instead, they spend their days inside as the soggy mess outside teases their futures and livelihoods.
I expect to continue on in the pattern of every day life with its usual ups and downs. Instead, everything at work is about to be turned on its head as we bid farewell to a coworker and frantically try to figure out how to bridge the gap she will leave.
There are seasons. And there are uncertainties. There is the usual, but rarely can it be trusted.
This is what we call life. The earth doesn't stop turning simply because things are out of the ordinary.
Instead, we get knocked to our knees for a time, then stand up and move forward the best we know how. Someetimes we stumble, sometimes we keep pace.
Onward we push, and forward we move.
One step at a time.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
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,
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
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It was not my intention, but this post carries similar tones to a couple of others I have recently read. My friends Lyla and Jennifer have shared their own thoughts at A Different Story and Getting Down With Jesus.
2 comments:
Found myself reading Solomon's words here as a checklist, noting in which of those I find myself at the moment.
In His time...
How I try to bend His time to match mine, rather than wrapping mine around His.
He's doing that work in me...also in His time.
Timely reminder to me, friend E.
Nothing endures but change. Another verse in Ecclesiastes really spoke to me several days ago regarding change.
Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions. - Ecc. 7:10
I think we as human beings often want to grumble at change. There's a comfort in what we know, and uncertainty in change.
I once heard someone say that in churches, something we do works really great, God shows up and blows us all away. So we do it again expecting the same feeling but it's not there. We continue to the pattern and it becomes a tradition for we hope for that initial spark to come back. And we fail to realize that God is not a God of repetition but a God who creates and is not likely to do the same thing twice. He moved in a powerful way once, not because of what style worship we were having or the pastor or the particular message or the way the service was formatted. He showed up because He chose to, not because of what we were doing, but because the time was right for such a time. I think if we keep looking back to that event, we may miss out on how God wants to show up next. :o)
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