Chapter 3: A Time for Everything:
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| The Shire | Matamata, New Zealand |
cares about time. There is a time for anything and everything in life. Solomon speaks on many things within this chapter referencing there is a time for all things. He encompasses a lot of the emotions that we will experience throughout life; contrasting the highs and the lows. I believe he states these things because we are to learn from our experiences and grow in our wisdom of how to handle life and the perspective that we should take when navigating through life's challenges.
The God-Given Task:
This is a very
prevalent issue in our 21st-century society: "What gain has the worker
from his toil?" A lot of people will use this idea of "there is no
benefit" for having a job and working. Because they can avoid work easily
(in America) and still get by through things like welfare, etc. Unfortunately,
they are missing out on something (hard to believe I am about to say this)
called work. Yes, missing out on work. God wired us to be workers, not to be
lazy. He gave us the earth and placed Adam within the Garden of Eden to work
and keep it. Since the beginning, this has been our calling and it is ingrained
within our DNA. Yes, working can be very 'inconvenient' in my eyes and
sometimes I despise having to work every week. However, I can see the benefits
that come from working hard at something and doing it to the best of my
ability. I want to be challenged in my career and that is something that I
enjoy. We are taught discipline, or we lose our jobs and learn a different
trait altogether because we have deadlines, duties, requirements, etc. that we
must uphold with our jobs. We, from an early age, are taught by teachers,
professors, that we need to learn math, science, foreign language, arts, etc.
yet, we aren't taught how to live daily life. One concept we need to learn is
what Solomon speaks of here: "everyone should eat and drink and take
pleasure in all his toil-this is God's gift to man" this teaches that we
are to work hard and be merry in life and enjoy it while knowing and keeping
the perspective that life is a gift from God and should not be wasted. We
cannot add to what God has created nor can we take away from His perfection.
Thus, we will either live a life that is marked by Christ's love and thus bring
glory to God through this process. Or, we will rebuke God and turn our back
from Him (I won't discount the worldly pleasures and happiness that may come
from this) and then bring glory to Him by returning to the ground and spend
eternity separated from His presence. We abandoned God and He longs to have us
back - not because He needs us - but He wants us to have perfect union with Him
in praise of His name because He knows that is what is best for us.
From Dust to Dust:
God created man from
the ground and to the ground we (our physical bodies) will return. There is
nothing everlasting about the human body, it is fragile and imperfect. We
should want to shed it as soon as we can, it is not designed for the glory that
God has for us. We are limited within our body, my soul cries out to break free
from the bonds that my eyes, hands, feet, ears, mind, and tongue all create
within me. My eyes lust after things and distort God's perfect creation, my
hands give out kindness from one and steal with the other, my feet wander to
places I shouldn't go, my ears hear curses and gossip, my mind perverts all
things and places on them emphasis that was never designed to be that way, and
my tongue is the worst of all, it takes language and bends it into
self-satisfying and swindling conversations that don't live up but tear down
others. We are no better than the beasts when it comes to the physical realm of
the world. However, God gave us a soul that we are to praise Him through and it
is designed to be everlasting. We are able to praise Him through any turmoil or
pain because of our souls. Our Spirit (soul) will continue on-and-on throughout
eternity, in one place or another.
Lord, I pray that you will remind me that there is a time for everything and it is your timing, not mine. I struggle with being patient and I cannot slow my mind down, let me be at peace in you and see your blessings every day. Remind me of my task on a daily basis and let me glorify you in my workplace specifically. Amen.
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