Meet me at the Table 6

To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

A time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

A time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain, and a time to lose;

A time to keep, and a time to throw away;

A time to tear, and a time to sew;

A time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

A time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

This past week i was asked to sub at my kids school in the library. One the classes was reading a book titled “Baseball for Breakfast” by Bill Myers. Its a story of a boy who hated to wait.

One day he found an old pocket watch and as he went to school that day he realized that if he moved the hand a little bit forward, time actually moved! All of a sudden it was time for lunch. He thought.. well i want to skip all the boring stuff and go straight to recess.. so that’s just what he did.

Day after day..he only lived in the good moments. if it rained..he skipped until it was sunny again so he could go out and play baseball. When it was time for dinner he skipped it and went straight for dessert. He even skipped baths at night because he would rather be doing something else.

Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right?

Well… after a couple of weeks everything started catching up with him. Because he had skipped all of the boring school lectures he was now failing every class. He was so weak from only eating dessert he couldn’t even swing the baseball bat. Because he had skipped all of the rain, plants were dying in his community. Oh and he was pretty stinky too.

He realized that we need all of the moments of life..even the ones that “seem” unimportant or boring because too much of a good thing is actually not a good thing. He ended up deciding to throw that watch out his window and let it smash into a thousand pieces. Pretty wise decision, I think.

Solomon, the wisest man to live, wrote this scripture in Ecclesiastes. “there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven.” We have to thank God for the rain in our lives just like we thank Him for the sunshine because its in the rainy seasons that we grow the most.

I can tell you it really stinks being sick but every single time i have been sick over the last several years God has spoken something to me, revealed something to me, or even given me spiritual dreams. And it sure makes me so thankful for health when i am feeling better.

Everything has its time. Life has its ups and downs just like Solomon said but praise the Lord He is with us through every season. He is always on time.

No matter what season you find yourself in today… whether you are on the mountaintop or in the valley.. know that its just that..only a season. Enjoy with all your heart the mountaintop moments and when you go through the valley grow in grace knowing it is all for our good and His glory.