“There is a time for everything, and a season for every
activity under heaven: 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, a time to search and a time to give up, a 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
“Whoever obeys his command will come to no harm, and the
wise heart will know the proper time and procedure. For there is a proper time
and procedure for every matter, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him.
Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? No man has
power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the day of his
death…” Ecclesiastes 8: 5-8
On a small
island, everyone pretty much knows everyone, or everyone at least knows ABOUT
everyone else in some way, shape, or form. This has its positives and
negatives. The day before yesterday, one of the island residents passed away
suddenly. He was young, in his early forties, and he left behind a wife and two
very young children, one of which attends the preschool where I work, so the
loss of this very family oriented man we knew along with the son we teach and
see every day has hit our staff particularly hard. Of course, no one has been hit as hard as his
wife here and his family back in the states, and so, it got me to thinking.
What kind of comfort does the Bible, God’s word, provide in such an
unexplainable and tragic death? I
started with the index of my student Bible looking up the word “death,” but I
really only found information about death itself, no comfort…wrong key word, I
guess. So, back to the drawing board, as
my memory kept playing the song “Turn! Turn! Turn! (to everything there is a
season)” made popular by the band, The Byrds, back in 1965. I figured I should
follow up on that thought as I knew the song came from verses in the
Bible. I started to try and index the
specific verse and then suddenly the book of Ecclesiastes popped into my mind
as I noticed at the same time, all of the pink and green highlights this
particular Bible contained. I knew if the verses were in that book, I would
easily be able to reference them as they would be highlighted. Sure enough,
they were, and I found them quickly.
Now, what do they
mean? They are not particularly
comforting words as the whole book of Ecclesiastes is not necessary comforting.
Mostly, the author of the book repeats the
refrain that life is meaningless. The man who wrote the book sought meaning in
everything life had to offer, wealth (as it is commonly believed the author was
a king), pleasure, work, wisdom, advancement, and he found that in the end, it
is simply best for man to enjoy his life and his work, fulfilling the purpose
that God has put him on this earth for, to fear God, and to keep His
commandments as this is all that will matter in the end. This may be a bit tough to swallow for those
of us who are still trying to figure out the meaning of life and what our
purpose is here on earth, but somehow the verses above are still comforting to
me as I walk through challenges and difficulties because it tells me that God
is in charge, that I am not alone, that I do not have to worry about
controlling and/or understanding all of life and the things that happen in it.
I just have to know that death and life, war and peace, mourning and laughing,
there is a time for all of it in a lifetime. God does not say it will be easy.
He does not say it will be ideal all the time. It just is.
I really like the
second set of verses listed at the start of this entry because they do give me
something specific to strive for, to remember when life gets tough. “Whoever
obeys his command will come to no harm, and the wise man will know the proper
time and procedure…Since no man knows the future…No man has power over the day
of his death.” These words release me from trying to control it all, to keep my
life and my family’s life in perfect order. All I need to concern myself with
is doing my job to the best of my ability, which includes obeying God’s directions
and allowing Him to make me wise, so I can be guided by that wisdom.
Too often, I
think when we start to talk about God and His purpose for our lives, people
think that means they have to be doing something specifically for God, such as
working in the ministry, but wherever God has you now is where you are needed
most, fulfilling your purpose, and if we can find joy in that and continue each
day not allowing life to overwhelm us with worry and fear, when difficult
circumstances arise, we will be able to continue to breathe and allow sadness
to come at its time. There are really no
words to comfort someone in the loss of a spouse or a parent, but when our life
spins out of control because of such a tragic event, it is comforting to know
that it’s not our responsibility to try and fix it or figure it out. It’s
simply one of those times of life that will come and go, and the only thing we
can really do is keep living and trust God.
My heart goes out to all those who are experiencing loss right now…when
you feel no one else can understand your pain, and there’s no one else to talk
to, talk to God. He knows….He understands.
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