Hills and Valleys
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SR
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, 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.
Range of emotions lately:
Headed to Yosemite first week of October but there are fires up there that may impact that
My wife has a job teaching health and science and the start of a new school year (24th at Pep!) but Coronavirus
Coming up on second year anniversary of Borderline/Woolsey. I shared some of those experiences with you. Had some anxiety about that recently
Good friend from college moving to Utah.
Hike to the clouds with my friend Jim.
The SR from Eccl today emphasizes that there are certain periods or seasons when we experience the full range of all that life has to offer. All the ups and downs, the good and evil, the happy and the sad. Then the commentary continues in vs. 9:
What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 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 people will fear him.
When Eccl says “a time for everything,” I’m not sure it means that as a justification for human activity. As in “scripture says there is time for killing people and war so that’s how I justify doing evil.” “I hate you because scripture says it’s OK for there to be times for me to hate.” Rather there are events and seasons of time/life that are imposed upon all people. The actions described here: building, planting, giving birth, healing, laughing are juxtaposed with their counter life experience: tearing down, uprooting, dying, wounding, crying--the totality of human existence.
Everyone of us share in these common actions and circumstances. We’ve all said words of healing and encouragement and spoken words of hate and condemnation. We’ve all laughed and wept, built and destroyed things-whether that be physical structures or things like trust, reputation, relationship.
It’s almost as if Eccl is saying everyone of us is trapped in this life cycle of experiencing and or committing acts of both good and evil, building up and tearing down. And then vs. 9 and following come along and say, “so what is this all about?” This is a great burden that God has placed upon us. We can’t know all of what God has done from the beginning to the end. We’re confined in these various seasons. Commentator Derek Kidner says:
“The events of life that come our way undermine our confidence that our endeavours will have any permanence. ‘Whatever may be our skill and initiative, our real masters seem to be these inexorable seasons: not only those of the calendar, but that tide of events which moves us now to one kind of action which seems fitting, now to another which puts it all into reverse.’ We are not sure they will have any total meaning, and we cannot stand outside the events of life and view them ‘from the beginning to the end’. All this puts mankind in his place, far from being master of his fate and captain of his soul.”
Americans like to be masters of our fate and captains of our soul. We believe in meritocracy and individualism. The foundations of capitalism say that opportunity is there for anyone. Just reach out and grab it. Make it happen for yourself. And we have all the stories to prove it. American technology companies alone with their stories of founders starting their multi-billion dollar industries in their garage, basement, or college dorm room provide plenty of evidence that anyone can grab the bull by the horns.
But rich and poor, communists and capitalists, democrats and republicans are all trapped in and experience the seasons of life described in Eccl 3.
Dire Straits in a song called “The Bug” says something similar to Eccl but in a different language: “You gotta know happy and you gotta know glad cause you’re gonna know lonely, and you’re gonna know bad.” Chorus says:
Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. Sometimes it all comes together baby, Sometimes you're a fool in love. Sometimes you're the Louisville slugger baby, Sometimes you're the ball.
Various places in the Hebrew scriptures describe God overseeing all of life and its various occasions and seasons. Every aspect of life has its own “time” or “season.”
“ ‘If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.
Speaking about his enemies God says:
It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.”
The prophets say God is in charge of the times when women conceive:
“What can be done for her?” Elisha asked. Gehazi said, “She has no son, and her husband is old.” Then Elisha said, “Call her.” So he called her, and she stood in the doorway. “About this time next year,” Elisha said, “you will hold a son in your arms.” “No, my lord!” she objected. “Please, man of God, don’t mislead your servant!”
Other commentators have said:
Every event has its definite place in the time-order; the event is inconceivable without its time, and vice-versa.’ This approach to time which permeates the Old Testament is taken up by Eccl and made the basis for optimism. The fourteen couplets of 3:2–8 cover the whole range of human activity. Over it all Eccl sees God in complete control. It is a warrant at the same time for both humility and confidence.
Optimism: interesting. Don’t usually think of Eccl as an “optimistic” work. Usually think about ideas and phrases like: “Meaningless” “Nothing new under the sun.” “In the grave where you are going, there is neither working, planning, knowledge or wisdom.” “All streams flow into the sea but the sea is never full.” There’s a weariness and an emptiness ascribed to life often in Eccl.
But there’s a trust expressed also. Throughout all the various components, ups and downs, good and bad the roller coaster that is life there is a conviction that God is overseeing it all.
So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them.
Also . . .
But I trust in you, Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hands; deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me.
Our times, our seasons: our love and hate, sowing and reaping, building up and tearing down, laughter and sorrow are all in God’s hands. There isn’t anything we experience that God isn’t unaware of or leaves us alone in. This may be a tough season for you. A season of isolation, boredom, panic, anxiety. The nation is struggling with division in race and politics. It’s been a tough season for me with some highs and lows.
So . . .Go!
Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for God has already approved what you do. Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with oil.
That’s our reaction to these seasons, to these times. We have a joyful, humble, grateful heart. “Approved what you do” Doesn’t mean God doesn’t care about anything we do and has placed his “stamp of approval on all of our actions.” Rather, he has adopted us into the family of God, it is by grace we have been saved, we don’t earn his love . . .
Mumford and Sons: Learn to love the skies you’re under. Sometimes it’s sunny and beautiful, sometimes it’s gray and rainy, sometimes it’s sunny, but the smoke has turned the sun and they sky apocalyptic orange.
We love the skies we’re under. We embrace the seasons of life because we know our times our in God’s hands.
STOP (?)
So there are peaks in life—the moments we’re recognized at work, the pay raise, things are good in a special relationship, goals are accomplished. These are the times we’re really feeling good. However, life is not always a “MTE.” There are plenty of low moments as well. These are the valleys. We haven’t received the long sought after promotion or raise, a relationship has gone sour. Maybe there are health issues or even the death of someone we love. That’s a realistic picture of how life really works. Cherry/pit, Rose/thorn. The highs and lows are often embedded and intertwined, experienced in compressed moments in the daily flow of normal life.
Mt. Moriah: Gen 22. Place of testing of the man of great faith--Abraham who lead his only son Isaac up the mountain to sacrifice him.
Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
So Abraham’s tested faith was rewarded on the mountain:
I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”