A Time for Everything

A Time for Everything

Scripture Reading: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

“There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.” (Eccl. 3:1,4 NLT)

Twenty-nine times in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Solomon refers to time. Most of us are slaves to time. We jump out of bed in the morning to the buzzing of an alarm clock. After a quick breakfast, we race to work in order to get there on time to punch the time clock. In many work places the company has a set time for taking a break. For those of us that worked at a warehouse in St. Louis it was ten o’clock in the morning and three o’clock in the afternoon. Everything shut down for fifteen minutes. Lunch time was from eleven thirty to twelve o’clock. At the designated set time the whistle blew and we all departed for home. Doesn’t that sound like time is our master?

     It never ceases to amaze me that Solomon did not add one more time sequence to his poem—a time to forget and a time to remember.

     There are incidents of failure and regret that we try hard to forget. Times when we failed to honor God in a relationship or business activity, or an ill-spoken word that hurt someone deeply, or personal decisions that didn’t turn out well. All of us have some type of dirty laundry that we have shoved down into our sub-conscious hoping that it will be forgotten forever, but Satan keeps attempting to dig it up and use it against us. I would love to forget the difficult times of childhood when neighborhood kids shoved me around and beat me up. I would love to forget those great depression years when my parents worked night and day to keep food on the table and roof over our heads.

     There are other time conscious memories, however, that should never be forgotten. Memories of the joy we experience while serving the Lord. I don’t want to ever forget the life-changing memories of my mission trips to Africa, Peru, France, and Papua, New Guinea. They were challenging but joyful experiences. I don’t ever intend to forget the way God picked me up out of the muck of sin and set my feet on the Rock, Christ Jesus. The psalmist expressed it well:

     “He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.” (Ps. 40:2 NLT)

     Are you enslaved by time? Is time your master? They say that time heals all wounds, but I prefer to take my failures, hurts, and problems to Jesus and let him carry my burdens. The Apostle Peter said, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you.” (1 Pet. 5:7 NLT)

Prayer: Dear Lord, how comforting it is to know that you are willing to carry my burdens.