Seasons

I don’t know why, but every fall, and only in the fall for some reason, I’m reminded of a song and a scripture.  The song is “Turn! Turn! Turn!” Subtitled “To Everything There Is a Season,” written by Pete Seeger in 1959 and made popular by the Byrds in 1969. If, like me, you were born about the same time that it was released, you remember the lyrics:

To everything, turn, turn, turn
There is a season, turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep, etc., etc….

The song comes from the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3:

“There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven– A time to give birth, and a time to die; A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal; A time to tear 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 stones, and a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, and a time to shun embracing. A time to search, and a time to give up as lost; A time to keep, and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart, and a time to sew together; 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.”

This section of scripture Solomon offers us practical applications by teaching acceptance, timing, living, joy, and worship. We learn acceptance of life’s changing seasons. Everything that we experience in this life will change.  Like the adage says, “there is only one thing sure in this world, and that is change.” But of course, there is also death and taxes, but that is a lesson for another day. We must learn to trust God’s timing. Right before His ascension, Jesus said, “It is not for us to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:7).  Paul said in Romans 5:6, “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” We read in Galatians “But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law” (Galatians 4:4). In I Timothy we read “who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time” (I Timothy 2:6). We must trust and rely on God’s timing for everything. Because of change, we must learn to live in the present.

Jesus taught us this in the sermon on the mount when He said, “For this reason I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Isn't life more than food, and the body than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single cubit to his life’s span? And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith? Do not be anxious then, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘With what shall we clothe ourselves? For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”

If we trust God to provide, we can live in the present without fear that we will not be provided for or without fear of failure. We must learn to find joy in our work. Paul challenges us in Colossians to find the joy in our work through the motivation of not what we are doing but who we are doing it for. He says, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men;  knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.” (Colossians 3:23-24). We should find joy in our work by doing it for the Lord. Finally, because of change, we should worship God daily through our actions. There is a great deal of toil and trouble to be seen among us today.  Labor and sorrow fill the world. This toil and this trouble are what God has allotted us—not as punishment, but as a divine invitation to worship. He never intended this world for our rest, and therefore never appointed us to take our rest in it. Instead, He calls us to turn our weariness into worship, our labor into praise. To many, this struggle proves a gift. God gives it to men, as the physician gives a medicine to his patient, to do him good.

This trouble is given to us to make us weary of the world and desirous of the remaining rest found only in Him. It is given to us that we may be kept in action, always engaged in glorifying God through our work and perseverance, for none of us were sent into the world to be idle. Every change cuts us out some new work, which we should be more concerned about—not merely for its outcome, but for how it draws us nearer to God in worship.