Carol Bechtel, one of my seminary professors writes about Ecclesiastes 3:1-14 in her book, Life After Grace. She quotes a Robert Frost poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay.
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief, so dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
The author of Ecclesiastes (in Hebrew, simply “the Preacher”) would have been comfortable with this poem. Life is progression; “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1) When we read these verses, it can be very easy to want to live in the positives and ignore the negatives. As Bechtel points out, we are happy to dance, laugh, and embrace; but mourning, weeping, and not embracing…
As I have learned from “The Preacher” and as a preacher, there is a time for everything. I’ve sat by the bedside of many who are about to be called home; yes there is a time to be born and a time to die. I’ve sat with two families who celebrated a birth the same time they were mourning death of a beloved believer. Together we rejoiced at both. These are the moments that bring us closest together to each other and to God.
I’ve come to know through my gardens and many dogs I have dearly loved and spent hours upon hours with; there is a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to plant and a time to uproot. Few things are more difficult than making that decision to have a pet put down. It is a little easier to cut down tree and replant or dig up a bush and replant, but still a sentimental decision when that tree or flowering bush has meaning, perhaps given to you by someone.
I’ve learned as a preacher and from “The Preacher” that there is a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to build and a time to tear down. In churches often times this accompanies a time to search and a time to count as lost. The most difficult part of this is knowing (discerning) from the Holy Spirit, when to apply one or the other. We do not have the full understanding of God, so at times we will make mistakes or people will perceive us to have made mistakes. That is part of the journey, part of each individual season of the church and of life.
One thing I am learning, slowly though, is to be joyful in every circumstance. I’m learning that the joy is in the journey with God, in all of these seasons. The joy isn’t necessarily in achieving a goal, but in the serving together to seek a goal. The pain, the hard work, the sacrifice, the uncertainty, the small wins, the big accomplishments are what brings us together, allows us to trust each other, and more importantly to trust in God’s providence, wisdom, and will for us. I’m also learning that when mistakes are made, we tear down when we should have built up, God can and will use our faithfulness for good.
God has planned a season for everything and I’ve learned to enjoy the late fall of life as much as the spring of life. God’s plan for His Glory!
Prayer: Father, thank you for the seasons, those in which I struggle and find grief and those that are easy and happy. Allow me to recognize the joy in both and be content in the understanding that I do not have your wisdom. I do not need to know why things happen all the time. Thank you for providing me a church family to go through these seasons with. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.