This week's Bible Study - January 10, 2010

Wrestling with Time

Background Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

Quote of the Week:
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
-- Albert Einstein

What are the most common responses when people are asked about time? Of course, there is the obvious 'time of day' answer. While it may seem obvious to just look at a watch or a clock, it can become a little more complicated, with time zones, daylight savings time and the like. I work with people on both the east and west coast of the United States, and it can become difficult to find the times when everyone can meet, without forcing one group to come in very early or stay very late. When I was in college in Indiana, there was a portion of Indiana that didn't change their clocks for daylight savings time, so I remember seeing on TV that a show would start at one time in Illinois and another time in Indiana. In other areas of the country, the time zone lines are drawn in odd locations, so that it may be confusing to know what time it is in a given location. While these are confusing, these are 'times' that we can deal with, once we understand how it all works.

A more common issue with time involves how we use it, and the apparent sense that we don't have enough time in a given day. I've heard some people tell others that they wished they had as much time in the day as the other person did, as if the other person had 50 hours in each day, and they only had 5. In reality, we all have the same amount of time per day, and the issues is more about how we choose to use that time. There are many people that seem to have almost every minute filled up - with a consistent waking time and morning ritual, commuting time, mornings at work, lunch, afternoons at work, commuting time, dinner, numerous events (kid related, sports related, class related, lazy related) and then preparing for bed, so that they can start the next day in the same way. They don't seem to have time for anything else, although I've found that if they like to play golf, it isn't that hard for them to find the 4-5 hours it takes to play 18 holes of golf. Somehow that time magically appears. (The 15 minutes a day for Bible Study or prayer often falls off the list of many believers - it must be harder to squeeze that in!)

This lesson focuses more on the time in our lives. As we grow older in this life, we experience a multitude of events. Some of them are ones that we have anxiously awaited; some we have tried to avoid; some bring joy and others bring sorrow to our lives. There are some people today that want to make Christianity into a religion that promises 'good times' throughout life. They imply that our lives should be full of earthly blessings - a better job, a better house, a stronger marriage, better health and so forth. Truly, who doesn't want those things? But, ask yourself if God really created us for those earthly blessings. In this type of theology, me and my happiness have replaced God at the center. Time becomes all about how things impact me, with little room for what God may be doing.

( Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 )

If you're like me, when you read this text, you may recall a song entitled "Turn, Turn, Turn". It was originally recorded by "The Byrds" in 1962. It is one of few mainstream songs that set a large portion of scripture to music. You certainly can hear many scripture based songs in today's Christian based music, but this is one of the few songs that played on mainstream radio in the 60s and since. The point of the song and the passage is the same - that there is a time and a place for all things. The only real difference is that the song is often performed as a plea for "world peace", with the words "a time for peace, I swear it's not too late" appended at the end.

In other parts of the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon made it clear that life is indeed wearisome. Seasons come and go, year after year. The water cycle and the movement of the water from mountains to the seas and back again - and the winds that blow are out of our control. We cannot change any of that. We experience life in the midst, but these never change.

This passage lets us know that we will all experience many seasons and activities in our lives. There is just no truth that God intends for us to only experience the 'highs' of life. I remember a former pastor that often used the analogy of hills and valleys as our lives. He made the point that we are always either in a valley, going into a valley, coming out of a valley or on a hill. I can surely relate to this, and imagine you can as well. There is no plateau that we reach in the Christian life - there is no time for just sitting back and enjoying the 'spoils'.

The key point of these verses is to show us that the events of our lives are beyond our personal control. For those of you that like to plan and control the events of your life, this can become very unsettling. As you read through those verses, you see stages of life that we can all relate to, but we cannot control. Sure, you may go see a comedian or a movie to laugh or cry, but in the normal events of life, you have no control over that. In my own life, I've laughed and cried the hardest at something I never expected and certainly didn't control.

These events occur in life under heaven. This is life from God's perspective and not necessarily ours. This is life taking all things in to account. There is a time to be born, which we have all experienced, and a time to die which we will all experience. It isn't a letdown from God that people die. Some think that if they prayed hard enough, none of their relatives would ever die. We'd have 300 year old people walking around if that were the case (and I wonder what that would do with our health insurance debacle?). Death is a part of life - even untimely deaths are not out of God's hand. These verses identify two sides to the same coin in many different situations. It is important to realize that these are from God. Some of these events are very joyous and others are deeply wounding, but we need to see that they occur as part of God's higher plan for our lives.

If we neglect to see things from God's perspectives, some of the events in life are meaningless and fruitless, meaning nothing. We basically become a product of random chance, with no meaning whatsoever. But, in a universe that is ruled by God, there is no event that is meaningless and no event in which we are merely victims. Every event of life is ruled by our Father. When we see that God is directing the events of life, then we can trust that his purposes are sure and no event is meaningless.

( Ecclesiastes 3:9-14 )

God has truly given us many beautiful things in our lives - beautiful in their time. He has ordered life and provided meaning with the events as they occur. We so want to hold on to what we have when we have it and make it last forever, yet life changes and we change along with it. Solomon says that he knows that there is nothing better for man to do than to be happy and to do good while they live. God intends that we may all enjoy the time we have on this earth, even in the midst of the joy and sorrow.

When we look at the content of verses 1-8, they can be frustrating and seemingly meaningless. However, when we look at those events from a divine perspective, realizing that God is alive and in control, everything changes. We see that everything God does will endure forever - nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. Years ago, I did the "Experiencing God" Bible Study, written by Henry Blackaby. One of the key things that stuck with me was that I should be about trying to identify where God was working and then join him. This is in opposition to the way many of us normally operate. Many people try and figure out what we think we should do for God and then ask him to bless it. What would change in our lives if we really looked to see what God was doing and then join him in that activity? God truly is at work in our midst, in our lives and around the places we work and live. Are we seeing those areas or are we walking around with blinders on?

Closing

Our prayers always seem to be for the good things, right? We'd choose birth, rather than death. We'd choose planting, healing, building, laughing, dancing, gathering, embracing, keeping, mending, speaking, loving and peace - don't you think? But, without the other side of the coin, life would become shallow. If you're like me, you've grown mostly through the other - death, uprooting, tearing down, weeping, mourning and so forth. From our perspective, we only want the good, but from God's perspective, it all is used to add to our lives. Perhaps we just need to pray that God would act in our lives in the situations that are going on in other's lives, rather than just praying for the good things. If every prayer you made was answered, how much growth would there be in your life and in the lives of others you know and love?

I don't want to minimize what some people have gone through. I do know heartbroken people that have had very unfortunate events that entered into their lives. Secretly, to themselves (or our own selves), we say "I wish it hadn't happened". Truly, nobody wants to endure such things, but in reality, we can't pick and choose most of the things that we experience. All we can do is to decide what we will do with the time we have been given. We must pick up the pieces when life has fallen apart and then move forward, trusting that everything we face is coming from our heavenly Father who loves us and using the time we have to honor him.