Seasons of Life

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:
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 from embracing,
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.

I started a new study on Ecclesiastes about a little over month ago and stopped within the third week.  I thought that maybe I was supposed to be doing something else.  Today, I sit and wonder if I let myself get talked out of it too easily. 

Everywhere I turn, I hear the word season.  The more I hear it, the more I pay attention.  There is a time and a season for everything.  A time of planting, a time of uprooting.  I believe that there is a time of BEING planted and there is definitely a time of being uprooted.  There may be times that it is difficult to tell the difference between the two.

Though some may disagree, most of the time no one really likes to be shoved into a dark, isolated, lonely hole.  I have recently found myself in that deeply planted place.  Things seem dark, and people fade away, and I find myself alone.  The enemy tries to distract me during this time more often than any other.  (Insert Enneagram commentary here.... i.e. ONEwTWO...sigh)  There is a constant conversation going on in my head, morning-noon-night and during these times of dark isolation it becomes overwhelming at times.  BUT God.  But God's Words speak louder than the other, becoming the very water that allows the soil to loosen and the outer shell to break open.  He meets me in the dark lonely place and stays with me, bringing me new life. The old must go, it must be discarded.  The process is painful and promising in the same breath.  There is something new, something growing that has yet to break the surface, but when it does....man oh man...when it does.

There is a time for everything, and there truly is NOTHING new under the sun.  There are times of joy and dancing and there are times of weeping and mourning.  There are times that they seem to intertwine.  There are times that you may feel ALL of the feelings at the same time, and it is okay.  It is okay to not be okay. We are all in different stages of the process, some being planted, some being uprooted, some not quite ready to break ground.  There is time for each.  And there is grace to help you find your way through it, sometimes peacefully, other times kicking and screaming a bit.  Listen for His Word, look for His Water, reach for His Life giving freedom.  There really is nothing NEW under the sun, BUT we are made NEW in the Son, every single day.