3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
In 1965, the folk rock group the Byrds recorded Turn, Turn, Turn, a song based on this passage. I suspect that was the first time I ever looked at this book. As a high school student, I thought I knew what this passage was about. With many years of experience, I look back and see something much different. At first glance, it suggests everything is just fate and you cannot control it. Or maybe your first glance challenges you to know the right time for everything so that you can control it. I now see the futility of worrying about so much. God is in control and I am not. So what if I miss the right time to gather stones, God can deal with it. If God were not on my side, then life would be even more stressful. I'm so thankful that God loves me and cares for me.
2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
- Which would you choose from each pair of opposites?
- Which choices do you feel the most strongly about? - Why do the "bad" things have appointed times like the "good" things?
- What do you feel when it is time for the "bad" things? Why? - How does this list reinforce the empty nature of life under the sun?
- What bothers you most about the list: its basic futility or your lack of control?
- What pleases you most about the list: that good will happen or that God controls? - How do you know which thing it is time for?
- How does this list encourage increased dependence on God?
- How might this list be discouraging in general?
In 1965, the folk rock group the Byrds recorded Turn, Turn, Turn, a song based on this passage. I suspect that was the first time I ever looked at this book. As a high school student, I thought I knew what this passage was about. With many years of experience, I look back and see something much different. At first glance, it suggests everything is just fate and you cannot control it. Or maybe your first glance challenges you to know the right time for everything so that you can control it. I now see the futility of worrying about so much. God is in control and I am not. So what if I miss the right time to gather stones, God can deal with it. If God were not on my side, then life would be even more stressful. I'm so thankful that God loves me and cares for me.
1 comment:
A good lesson for a "control freak" like me. I tend to forget that God is in control and no matter what, I cannot control anything. About December of 1990, I learned a very valuable lesson about God being in control, a lesson I really needed. Ecles. 3:1-8 happens to be one of the passages I often go to when I forget that God is in control.
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