By Mark Maher
“The past is a great place and I don’t want to erase it or to regret it, but I don’t want to be its prisoner either.” Mick Jagger
Learn to see the forest beyond the trees. It’s just a season. God’s got bigger plans for you. Paul couldn’t die in Malta (Acts 28) because he had to go to Rome. You’re not going to die in this season of your life, it’s just training for the next destination. God has “many plans for you” (Jeremiah 29:11) to walk through. “I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that THE BEST does.” Anne of Green Gables
The Ying Yang of life. It’s balance and you can’t go too far into one area or you will begin to lose your balance. This is what keeps life fascinating and beyond our comprehension. If you go too far down one path you’ll sacrifice another path. This is your life; a million choices.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (14 couplets) Solomon’s Wisdom
1 “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” The landscape of life never stays the same. The good doesn’t last forever and neither does the bad. We see the seasons of life all around us. Learn it, embrace it and expect it.
2 “A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.” We anticipate. We look forward. Nostalgia drifts in from past memories. Yet they come and go. Another holiday. Another season. Another year. We hold onto the memories but the moments quickly escape, so savor each season.
3 “A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.” The wrecking ball of life can come out of nowhere, who knows what tragedies may beseech you, but God also gave us the ability to rebuild, to start over, to try one more time. So in life, if you have to embrace the blow, also know you can and should rebuild. And in the pursuit of rebuilding in life, know that it can also be blown away in an instant. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house.” (Haggai 1:9)
4 “A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.” Been through rough seasons, been through exciting seasons, gone through highs and lows in the same day. Sadness and gratitude can coexist. One minute in deep reflection and thought and in another minute laughing. God gives us the contrast. Always seeking out balance. “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)
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.” I remember the lesson; If you bring something into the home you should take something out of the home or you risk a cluttered house. You can’t just gain without releasing. John 15:2 talks about how the vinedresser must cut back the branches in order to make them more fruitful. “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the wine would burst the wineskins, and the wine and the skins would both be lost. New wine calls for new wineskins.” (Mark 2:22)
6 “A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.” In order to “gain new you have to cut back the old.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) To gain a heart of love and joy you’ll have to lose the anger and bitterness. “If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old.” Peter Drucker
7 “A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” Sometimes listening and quietness is needed and other times a little bit of advice is needed. It’s a balancing act. Sometimes you just need to “be still” (Exodus 14:14) and other times you have to keep “walking forward by faith.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
8 “A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.” We can hate the behavior and love the person. Boundaries can become necessary, and at times boundaries need to be relaxed. It’s the Ying Yang of life. Your job is to figure out when to push and when to pull. It’s a dance. It’s spinning plates. Good luck, my friend. I may not be at my destination yet, but I’m closer than I was yesterday.
“I’ve also concluded that whatever God does, that’s the way it’s going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God’s done it and that’s it. That’s so we’ll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear. 15 whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is. That’s how it always is with God.” (Ecclesiastes 3:14-15 MSG)
We give God our response. Life is going to happen. You cannot control everything that happens around you, but you do have your response, and you have your decision-making, and you have your foresight. This is why God‘s ways are “free will” and “process.” He’s going to teach you how to fish. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Dale Carnegie
Learn God‘s ways, immerse yourself in Him.
You’ll always have challenges that test your faith. The transitions and the uncertainties are always the toughest. It’s when you’re in the middle of it that the darkest is all around. A light may start to emerge dimly, but then it starts to expand and you begin to see clearer. You start to see it for “what it was.” You begin to gain clarity. “There are years that ask questions, and years that answer.” Zora Neale Huston
1. Have you walked through a season in preparation for the next? Did you notice that certain skills were necessary to bring you into the next battle?
2. What revelations did you learned through the trials of yesterday and today?
3. Most trials are temporary. Learn from them and grow from them. How do you stay grounded in recognizing that life is full of seasons?
