A Time for all Things

Eccl reminds us there is a time for all things.  Sometimes we know a bit of what God is doing in our lives, but sometimes we have no idea.  We are in the darkness, the pit, and it seems He is no where around or to be found. We doubt and are afraid.  We forget His promise to never leave us.  Sometimes we are happy, sad, loving, hateful, seeing our sin, seeing His love.  There is a time for all things.  There are times we are angry at Him, confused, restless, obedient and not.  Sometimes we trust Him and sometimes we don't.  We are independent, self reliant and rebellious.  We run away and we run to Him and His awaiting embrace.  Sometimes He takes us to a deeper valley to take us up to a higher mountain top, but He is always with us through it all.  Whatever our sin, our questions, our emotions, our doubts and our fears, He can handle it all.  We are to be in awe yes, but humbly honest.  Even about our pride and self righteousness.  His death covered it all for those who receive it.   It is especially in our honesty can we participate in change.  We simply come to Him and open the door as He pursues us relentlessly.

There are things we can know, no matter what is going on in our relationship with Him and with others and we will even wrestle with this at times.  But God is always good.  He is always up to something good. He loves us, is with us and He is faithful even when we can't see it or don't believe it and even when we are not.  He may ask for the things we hold on to, but it is to always to bring us something bigger, greater and better, Himself.   We go through pain and suffering.  Joy and splendor.  A time to grab hold and a time to let go.  A time to work and a time to play.  A time to strive and a time for rest.  A time to learn and a time to reflect. A time to do and a time to be. A time to speak and a time to listen.  A time to plant, a time to grow and a time to reap.  A time to make noise unto the Lord and a time to meditate and be silent.  A time to live and a time to die.  We are personal, relational beings, created in the image of God for His good pleasure and purpose.  To literally burst within our souls with love, He has opened us up and poured into us.

We turn to  Him and to idols.  Our very being is broken inside as we desire to serve, but our God and worship Him. He brings beauty out of ashes.   But it does not depend on us.  It depends on Him.  He is revealing, changing and delighting in us.  He just gives us the pleasure of the dance.  But we don't always enter in, especially with joy.  We have the opportunity of working with Him, grabbing hold of His furious longing for us.  We have hope and we despair.  We linger and we run the race fast.  We stumble and we fall but He always rescues.  We persevere and we hesitate, but finish well because He is faithful to us.  We are humbled and we are prideful, self-righteous and broken.  We have victory but know failure.

He is always working for our good, for those who are called according to His purpose and for His glory.  He has a purpose in each of our lives, no matter what is going on with us, and that is to make us more like His Son. Our purpose is to bring Him glory through an ever increasing journey of wondering and clinging to our God, in finding Him most satisfying of all.  He will see to it because of His great love and passion for our hearts, His children and for His name sake.  To bring us into a greater knowledge and experience of who He is and who we are. I think the more I know the less I know.  Sometimes I think, I know nothing at all but Christ and Him crucified and I need others and the Spirit to remind me of that.  God is the center of our theology.  Christ is our seeing of Him, His love and justice, His mercy and grace, His patience and kindness, His wisdom and compassion, His character.

God is bringing about a love in us, for each other and Him that cannot be slowed down or speeded up, I am convinced.  It is His perfect timing for it all.  He is in no hurry, as His time is not as our time.  A day is but a thousand years.  He melts away our fears of rejection, our judgmental prejudice opinions, our need to be needed and approved,  our hope for a pain free life, little by little and gives us a life more than we could have hoped for or dreamed of.  It is in light of His glory and grace.  We have the perfection we so crave in His perfect righteousness.  The peace we try to maintain.  The acceptance and love we long for.  We have contentment not stoicism.  We have strength we try to muster up.  Forgiveness as we are forgiven.  Repentance as a gift and a faith that trust Him more.  We have a life we tried to control and make happen.  Relationships that are real and treasured.  We have a joy in serving others.  Our loneliness is enveloped.  Our fears slowly reassured.  We endure with patience.  We embrace our brokenness, our limitations, our failures, our past and our pain as He embraces us.  We are anticipating to be surprised by His grace.  We never outgrow our need for grace.  We only grow in our need of it.  We are renewed, we do have hope for change and are humbled once again.  I am His, in His presence at this very moment.  And somehow that seems to be all that really matters now, is Him.