From the minister... 

Dear friends

I’ve been thinking recently about what time it is. In case you’re wondering, this doesn’t mean I’ve been increasingly glancing at my watch, to see how the hours and minutes of the day are passing. Instead, I’ve been thinking about the present time in my life, events which are taking place and how God might be at work through them.

Among the many memorable moments in my favourite Christmas film, The Muppet Christmas Carol, is one where Bob Cratchit, played by Kermit the Frog, tries to comfort his family after the passing of his son, Tiny Tim. ‘Life is made up of meetings and partings, that is the way of it,’ he tells his wife and children. This is a painful reality of human existence and one which we all discover sooner or later. There are some seasons of life when we are privileged to share in one celebration after another, often in our younger years when summers filled with weddings give way to the arrival of children, our own and that of friends. As a family, we’ve moved several times, sometimes over distances of a hundred miles or more. On each occasion, we’ve known the sadness that comes from leaving much loved people and places alongside the excitement of exploring somewhere new and forging new friendships. In other seasons in life, we will experience illness and the loss of those dear to us.

The Bible acknowledges all of this in one of its most famous passages, words which may be known to many in our wider culture through the Byrds’ song, ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ Ecclesiastes 3 begins by telling us that,

¹ 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.

A further six verses follow, each with the same pattern – two lines that speak of contrasting human activities. Some of the phrases can be readily interpreted as referring to seasons of life: there may be ‘a time to weep and a time to laugh’ or a ‘time to mourn and a time to dance’. But other lines are more mysterious. We’re told, for example, of ‘a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing’ as well as ‘a time to tear and a time to mend’.

The writer of Ecclesiastes goes on suggest that how we arrive at such seasons is not always a matter within our control but reflects instead how God has made the world to be. In some versions of the Bible, we are told in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that, ‘He has made everything beautiful in its own time’ though the word ‘beautiful’ could could also be translated as ‘appropriate’ or ‘fitting.’ Perhaps there is a sense here of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. As one commentator suggests, ‘If we can accept life as it is, even the hard parts will be bearable.’ ¹ All of which brings me back to the question I mentioned earlier. What time is it? As I’ve read again this list of ‘every activity under the heavens’, I’ve been challenged to think afresh about what God is asking of me in this season of my own life: should I be taking risks or sticking to well-established patterns? Should I speak out on certain issues or hold my tongue? The answers to such questions are not always clear and may not always be the same for each of us.

There may be moments in life when we need to embrace, making ourselves vulnerable to another to enable a relationship to be restored. However, there may also be a time to refrain from embracing because the conditions in which we might be reconciled with someone are not yet present, with wounds too raw or with insufficient time to reflect. Sometimes it’s appropriate to continue searching for a solution or answer to a problem, but we also need to know when to give up and walk away.

And what time is it for you? This edition of INSight will reach you just two weeks into Lent. One prayer exercise that you might find helpful is to read Ecclesiastes 3 for yourself, seeing if there are particular words or phrases that resonate with you and asking God what this might mean for your priorities now and in the future. As you do, I pray that you would know the courage to make a change and the peace that comes from knowing what the writer of Ecclesiastes describes in 3:13 as ‘the gift of God’, the satisfaction of seeing something good come out of the things that we have done.

Wishing you God’s grace and peace Trevor 
¹ Duane Garrett, The New American Commentary: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, p299