There is a Time

Verses:  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

My thoughts about the verses:

Many of us are very familiar with these verses.  Songs have been written about them.  They have been reflected in poetry.  It is something that we can easily connect with.  There is a time for all things that we do.  God has given an opportunity to have great times of joy.  There are other times of sorrow that fills our life. 

If you are reading this during a time of stress or sadness you are probably saying why.  Why do I have to have bad things happen in my life?  Why is there a need for pain and sorrow?  Why can’t we go through life filled with joy?  The list of Why Questions just goes on and on. 

If you are reading this during a time of joy and happiness in your life you are probably asking why?  Why do the good times have to end?  Why does the happiness in our life have to fall into time of sadness?  Why do I have to worry about tomorrow when I am doing so well today?  The list of Why Questions goes on and on.

Basically we are asking the same thing why we have to have bad times.  Can we not always have good times?  Who needs sadness and stress in their life?  This seems like it is against the very plans that Jesus lays out in the Gospel.  Jesus is giving us new life a filling of our Spirit.   So how can Jesus let me go through low points.

We all find it is easy to blame God for the bad things that happen to us.  We want to get angry with God when things are not easy.  We want to push God away because we feel what good is it to trust in God if I am going to have bad times.  Yet, we need to ask ourselves is this really what we need to do during the bad times.

We all find it is easy to forget about God when things are going good.  We go through life with our head raised as if we caused all the happiness in our life.  We often forget that Jesus is there with us during the highlights of our life.  We have a very easy time of taking credit for the moments in our life that are turning out good.

Basically, we find it easy to blame God when it is bad.  Yet, at the same time we want to pat our own back when things are going good.  It is like we want God to make things go good for us.  When it does we think we have done it ourselves.  When it doesn’t go good for us we want to blame God. 

The crazy thing is that we miss that God is responsible for the highlights of our life.  We also miss that God is there helping us through the low points of our life.  We have to realize that there will be both good times and bad times.  We have time when we are on top of the world.  Other times when we feel like we have the whole weight of the world on our shoulders. 

We have to ask God to be there to help us when we hit those stressful and sorrowful moments of our life.  We also need to praise God for the moments that we are having joyful moments.  When you do this you will realize that the hard times will not be so bad.  You will also realize that you will have the best friend ever to share the highlights of your life. 

Prayer:

We thank you God for your love.  We praise you for being there with us throughout our life.  Help us offer our lives over to you God.  We praise you for all the good things that happen in our life.  We ask for you to give us strength as we face life’s struggles.  In your Holy Name we pray.  Amen

Questions:

Yes there is a time for every season.  The question is how are you handling those moments?  Are you asking for God’s help to get you through the rough patches?  Are you praising God when things are going good?  Have you accepted that God wants to be there in all of the moments of your life?  What do you need to turn over to God today?