"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to reap..."
As summer winds down, these deeply familiar words from Ecclesiastes stir in my mind and heart. Like many excerpts of Scripture, it has layers that only reveal themselves over time. I had always loved the slightly lulling, reassuring implications: a natural order prevails, like the seasons.
And yet... There are so many times we have to grapple with not a predictable end to one of life's seasons, but a sudden and unwelcome one. A time to be.... Unemployed? Grappling with illness, or a loved one's illness? Or simply awash with the change that can sweep over a workplace, a relationship, a family, our psyche, our church.
Knowing change comes not just with regularity, but with occasional terror, how then shall we live, always amidst a season that is on the cusp of shifting? I do not have any answers; this is something I struggle with regularly. I believe we are called to be present to our lives, and to what God is doing, without constant worry about what is just over the hill. At the same time, complacency lurks...that false sense that we will have all the time we need, that important things can wait, that whatever "season" we are currently enjoying does not have a looming expiration date.
In this tension lies an invitation to both consciousness and deep, personal prayer: A conscious but not obsessive awareness of what is fleeting; prayers of gratitude for whatever this is a "time for" and prayers for strength and acceptance of same.
At the same time, we are also called to be conscious of whatever season is trying to be born in us. Yes, sometimes change comes unbidden, and we are called to ride it and live within it; other times are asked to midwife it, to bring a season to fruition. In this time of incipient fall and new beginnings, try this simple journaling exercise and write your own Ecclesiastes verse:
"In my life, this is a time for...."
Let yourself be open to whatever comes. This is a way to orient yourself amidst all that may be disorienting. Try it daily, or weekly. "That which is happening" is a way to translate "logos," or "God's word.” Blessings on all your seasons as they manifest.