Seasons of Life

I originally wrote this essay in 2007. I was in a different Season of Life then and I've been through a few seasons since then and I'm currently in a season of waiting patiently. I am not good at this so God brings me through this season often, UGH!! However, I wanted to share this post with others.

I am enjoying a great time in my life right now. I have been happier over the last few months than I have been in awhile.  Work continues to demand much of my time, but the Lord has blessed me in other areas of my life, and like Paul says in Philippians 4:11b  “I have learned to be content whatever the cirumstance.”  Well, maybe still learning, not completely learned.  Even though life is good right now, for some reason, in the back of my mind, I can hear Dorald Kleitz, wife of Crossroads Senior Pastor, Pat Kleitz, saying “For a season.”  I’d never heard this phrase prior to attending Crossroads. The first time I recall hearing it, Dorald was talking about how our lives go through seasons and how like the changing of the seasons (This a great benefit of Western New York, we have four seasons) God will bring people into our lives for His purposes.  Throughout the fabric of time, we cross paths with thousands of people, many of whom affect our lives, and many of whom we affect.  We were meant to be relational, this is a great truth of God, and you will rarely find a hermit christian with a vibrant active faith.  We need each other. 

However, being the selfish man I am, and this is my flesh talking, I don’t like seasons, I want everything to stay just how it is now. I want to continue to enjoy the relationships I have formed now. I’d like to DVR my last 3 months so I could replay them, like the movie Groundhog Day.  For the really special moments/memories I’d like to take the lead of the Jim Croce song “Time in a Bottle.”

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

Chorus
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I’ve looked around enough to know
That youre the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

Repeat Chorus

Obviously, this isn’t possible, which got me to thinking about what the Bible had to say on the subject.  The first passage that popped into my head, yes popped, was Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. These verses are know to many having been adopted by the Byrds as the popular 1960’s hit song “Turn Turn Turn”.

A Time for Everything

 1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Why? Why are there seasons? Why do we continue to look forward? Why as Paul says in Phillipians 3:12-14 do we press on to the goal.  I think a reason can be found back in the book of Ecclesiastes,verses 3:10-11

“I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

We are wired that way. As much as I love my life at this moment, I will not continue to grow as a Christian man, if I do not press on. Unfortunately, this means my life will have seasons, but I will have memories to look back upon and cherish.  I don’t know what other seasons God has for me in the future. I’d like a long season as husband and a father, God willing.  Being a grandparent sounds like a great time too, but that’s way off.  There could be seasons of hardship, seasons of sadness, seasons of love and hope. I won’t know until I get there. I only know that as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.