A Time For Everything
“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.” -Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NIV
There is a time for everything. Do you remember a parent or grandparent sharing this with you? Perhaps you heard the Byrds sing a version of this?
I mostly hear this phrase given as advice to anyone who is in a circumstance of life that is either anticipatory or challenging. “There is a time for everything!” The person says.
“You’ll be married one day!” “That job will come along!” “Your breakthrough is coming soon!”
I don’t know if that really is what Solomon was talking about when he penned these words.
There is a time for everything.
We live in a world that claims to have time for everything. In one scroll, we find ourselves in a season of grief, love, war, hate, silence, discussion, laughter, and dissension.
Our time is demanded for everything, and when we push back we are looked at as backwards strangers. “Why aren’t you watching that show?” “What do you mean you’re not going to that?” “You didn’t say anything online about that topic- you don’t care!”
We wonder why our health is failing, why our stress is constantly high, why we feel such a growing anxiety toward the social climate.
We have given time to everything, and in doing so, we have taken time away from everything. In our culture’s hastening to throw God out of everything, they missed sacred markers God has given all things.
There is a reason there is a time for everything.
If you have elected your new year resolution to be reading through your bible in the year, eventually you will make your way through the laws in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. You will notice interesting verses like:
“If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.”-Deuteronomy 24:5 NIV
“The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.”-Deuteronomy 34:8 NIV
“Celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles for seven days after you have gathered the produce of your threshing floor and your winepress. Be joyful at your festival—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, the foreigners, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns. For seven days celebrate the festival to the Lord your God at the place the Lord will choose. For the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and your joy will be complete.”-Deuteronomy 16:13-15 NIV
And if you think this is a quirky Old Testament thing, you’ll eventually run through Hebrews:
“Here remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,[e] just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.”-Hebrews 4:9-11 NIV
There is a time for everything.
Why?
Time is something so intensely unique to humanity. God created it for us to exist within. He continually stresses through the scripture our need as humans to remain aware of the time we have in our lives.
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”- 2 Peter 3:8-9 NIV
God did not intend us to be people of chaos, attempting to shovel all the possibilities of life into eighty years. Nor did he intend us to be people of neglectfulness, wasting our days on nothing. He gives us clarity and discernment to live in anticipation of Christ’s return, but also to give proper time to each season of life. Ultimately, this is our command:
“And to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.”- 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 NIV
I think we read too much into the command to go and preach to all nations. We begin to add this element of hustle and drive to it, and we lose sight of something.
There is a time for everything.
When COVID-19 hit, I was coming off a season of traveling and missionary work, and entered into a season of dating, which turned into marriage and a new baby. Often at night, I wonder at the change of the seasons. I used to have it drilled into me that if I wasn’t constantly “on fire for Jesus” (and doing wild evangelism) that I was a lukewarm and worthless Christian.
But as I’ve grown older and learned from wiser believers, I’ve realized that the Lord did not intend us to be gung-ho on the road preaching from the curb all of our lives. Yes, there may be a time of that in our lives we are called to, but God has given us seasons.
A time of rest, a time of passion, a time of quiet, a time of speaking out.
This year, I am seeking to give time to peace. My husband is home right now from army work, and we are settling into civilian work. My son is four months old, and still needs my constant nurturing and calm. I am adjusting to working from home, and growing local relationships.
In truth, I don’t know when the next deployment will come for my husband, or if a family member will die, or if jobs will change unexpectedly, or how the social climate may shift.
But, it would be silly to give time to worrying over seasons that have not yet come. It would also be silly to continually seem alarmed and surprised when these seasons come.
I am human, and my life will have seasons of war, grief, and challenge. It will also have seasons of peace, love, and hope.
I will dwell in the season I am in well. That is my new year's resolution. So, I will give my time to peace.
When I was pregnant, someone made an excellent comment which was, “It’s ok to turn off the news and be ignorant to it while you adjust to your new baby.”
That has really stuck with me. It’s ok to set boundaries for your time. I do not need to be “with it.” I’ll catch up later on. It gave me the permission I need to not feel guilty for focusing on where my family was at instead of trying to keep up with where the world was telling me to be in my life.
This is my “battle plan” for how to live a quiet life for right now. This is not permanent, and personalized, but for this season, these are my goals.
Learning to cook from scratch
Intentionally meeting with friends
Sitting in more quiet
Napping when my son naps
Keeping our home clean and uncluttered
Not worrying over postpartum weight or looks
Giving my husband my full attention when he is home from work
Not scrolling mindlessly on social media
Taking walks in the sunshine
Taking time to build a makeup and hair routine (keeping it simple, but the habit is to force me to stop rushing my morning routine)
Full sleeping hours
Spending more time with extended family
What season are you in as we begin this year? How can you seek to honor that time and space well? Are you willing to defend that time?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mia Grace loves sunflowers, words, old hardcover books, and fountain pens. She adores Jesus Christ, and seeks to listen and obey him in her life. Her life verse is Isaiah 52:7, and her prayer is for every girl to grasp the height, weight, depth, width, and power of Christ's love for them.