Fun in the Son…Freedom with Christ
So, if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36, NIV)
July 27th, 2022
RELISH: a TIME for every SEASON
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, ‘There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap, A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct, A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer, A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part, A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go, A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up, A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace.’ (MSG)
Time. It’s a four-letter word. It often is stacked against us. It’s what we never have enough of, but often have too much of to fill. We race against clocks all our lives, and get to the end and look back over it, and wonder why. Whether it is a life or a day or a season, maybe a vacation or an assignment or a class or a grand opening, a wedding or a milestone occasion. We say things like, ‘At the end of the day…’ and ‘If only I had more time…’ and ‘There’s just never enough time…’
But what would you do with more time, if you had it? Wouldn’t you just run out again, like you did with what you initially were allotted? Would it make a difference if you were given more time, when we so poorly manage what we have? I don’t think the problem is not having enough time; rather, it is what we do with what we have. We keep asking God for more, but I think He looks at us—or at me anyway—and shakes His head, and says, “You’d just mess that up too! I gave you ample amounts of time. 12 hours in a day and 12 hours in a night. And if you had anymore, you’d have way too much to mess up then!” Only God knows how to properly manage time. That is why His timing is impeccable.
My precious daddy has been gone over 9 months now. It has been the longest and shortest 9 months of my life. Everyday has held its own agonizing ache. What I wouldn’t give for one more day. Because I wasted so many. See, we often don’t know until it’s gone, until someone is gone. We have no earthly idea until it is no more. We make additional comments, like, ‘If I had it to do all over again…’ and, like me, ‘Just one more day…’ What did I do with the time I was given? I spent a lot of years not seeing eye to eye with my dad, ignoring opportunities, and, yes, wasting blocks of time with which I could have been building lifetimes. I am so grateful that the last couple years of his life, I gave up almost everything else so I could concentrate on him and just spend time with him, so the regrets are less and the memories are priceless. Even still, I wanted one more day. Until I realized what one more day selfishly for me would mean for my dad who made it to Jesus’ feet right on time. Not my timing, but in the timing of a holy God with a perfect plan. It put it in perspective then.
Beautiful You, there is a time for everything, a season for it all. I am learning, relish every second and don’t waste the precious seconds you have been given. We are not going to be given any more, so we instead need to figure out how to utilize wisely what we have. It is my prayer that when the Lord sees me and you, He sees a people who learned how to live life to its fullest, who squeezed every last morsel out of each moment, who made the most of what He gave. So, at the end of the day, we can hear, “Well done, My good and faithful servant, well done.”
Ecclesiastes 3:10-11, ‘I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.’
Out of all the living things God made, He created mankind to BE. Whatever, whoever, you are, Beautiful You, BE the best version of you; BE the change this world needs; BE filled; BE free!
