3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What does the worker gain from his toil?10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men.11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil–this is the gift of God.14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.15 Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.
Baby dedications & funerals, nursing home & jail visits, weddings & marital counseling, church conflicts and church celebrations. As I try to reflect on these last few months, its been hard to find a starting point.
One of my favorite quotes: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” –Socrates
I have come to realize that as a pastor, I have been given a special gift– I get a front row seat to the most important and meaningful life moments of others. The depth of feeling, the raw emotion, and the carefully spoken words from the friends and family, each word containing meaning, thought and sincerity, based upon the closeness of the relationship… observing these things, they leave an impression in my heart and in my mind –and it gets me thinking.
What really matters. What is most important. What to hang on to, what to let go. Truthfully, the thing I come away with the most, is just how blessed we really are. When we choose to focus our minds on the good, and think about the goodness of God, and we see the fingerprints of God, even in the midst of the trials, it gets to be quite overwhelming to me. As I watch a married couple of 54 years approach the fork in the road, one prepares to leave their earthly dwelling as the other stands by in the role of comforter,… and as I watch the eyes of a young groom fill up with tears at the approach of his beautiful bride, as she walks down the aisle, Oh, how that grips the heart!! What a gift I am given.
Perspective. A gentle but urgent reminder to hug my kids, to kiss my wife, share my heart, Call my mom & dad, do something with the time I have been given, Pray, have more friends over, speak the truth in love, Live what you believe, remember the elderly, don’t be in such a hurry, and trust God.
