Ecclesiastes 3:1 – A Time for Everything

 "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven"

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (ESV)


Patience may not be gritting our teeth through seasons when they're unwanted, but rather finding the value in them while we’re in them.

Time to get personal - I have issues with being patient with God’s timing. And I think that’s only natural - we’re surrounded by reminders of how short life is, we get more connected each day with other people that are each in a different season of their lives, and we’re conditioned to be able to get virtually anything we could want in the least time possible. Delivery services, the internet, and even dating apps are all evidence that if we can find a way to get something faster, even at the expense of it being less rewarding, we will. That’s not at all to say that any of those things are inherently bad, and there are a lot of ways that they can be used to make lives better. But the existence of them shows you just how impatient we can be sometimes, and on a large scale, that can lead to bitterness, towards God or others.

For the past several months, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can appreciate what I have right at this moment, and that’s much easier said than done. But it helps when I can be reminded that God is in everything. God is in rest, God is in work, God is in relationships, God is in alone time, God is in comfort, God is in times of discomfort. If it doesn’t look like He’s in it, then it’s pointing to Him. I think that all impatience is, is our fear that we don't know how God's timing works. And I think that the more that we can accept that we never will and recognize everything as intentional, the better off we are.

Ecclesiastes has started to really interest me, because I enjoy passages of Scripture that read like poetry. Even though the author isn’t known, it’s clear how much wisdom the Lord gave them specifically to write it. I’d like to go through some of the verses in this chapter individually or in small groups, but it’s very validating knowing that God has made time in our lives even for things that look like inconveniences to us.

Observe more, to experience more. Anticipate less, to worry less. Understand that there will always be more room to do both.

What is this season for? What does God want me to get out of it?



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