A time for everything

Yesterday, we considered those fleeting moments of significance that seemingly come from nowhere to give meaning and depth to the most ordinary of activities. Those glimpses of connection with something outside of ourselves.

We cannot manufacture those moments. We cannot force them into existence. We cannot cling onto them and stop them from slipping through our fingers.

Which frustrates our inner control freak no end. We try to control every detail of our lives and yet we cannot. We aim to micromanage every moment of our lives but cannot. So much that happens around us and to us and inside of us is outside of our control. And the sooner we find a way to accept that and make peace with that and even embrace it, the better.

This beautiful poem in Ecclesiastes 3 highlights how seasons come and go in our lives like the seasons in the natural world. Everything is a phase. Nothing lasts forever. Everything is transient, even life itself. There’s a natural rhythm to our lives like the natural rhythms we see all around us – the tides, the circle of life, the sunrise and sunset…And often there is very little we can do about it.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
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 from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
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

So what can we do?

• enjoy or endure the season that we are in
• recognise that whatever it is, it is here for a season
• relax into the flow
• control our own reaction (that’s all we can control in any situation)
• listen to our inner wisdom/God’s voice and act accordingly
• surrender control
• see everything as part of a bigger picture, a wider story
• don’t use this as an excuse to detach from the world, but actively engage in bringing peace and love in every season
• avoid catastrophising (‘I will always feel this way’, ‘This can never get any better’ – that kind of thing)

TO DO: Read and reread this poem. Read it aloud. Read it throughout the day. Use it as a meditation. Combine it with a breathing exercise. Let the words sink into your soul. Let them take root.