A Word from Ecclesiastes 3

If you’ve ever been through a time of deep challenge—like a significant loss, or a divorce, or a national tragedy—you might’ve found great comfort in today’s word from Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:

There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die…

a time to kill and a time to heal…

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance…

a time for war and a time for peace. (3:1-4, 8)

Of course, part of the comfort in those words comes from the promise they offer that God is control. But it occurs to me that part of the danger in those words is that they can tempt us to think that God’s already decided exactly what’s going to happen. And so, all we can do is to shrug our shoulders and accept whatever comes our way.

But there are other passages in the scriptures that encourage us to see ourselves as God’s partners in determining the future. Jesus says that “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Mt. 21:22) And Paul says that we’re “co-workers in God’s service.” (1 Cor. 3:9)

And so, I wonder if the real invitation in Ecclesiastes isn’t just to accept that “whatever will be will be,” but to discern more deeply what God really wants and then to join Him in making it happen. The Apostle John puts it like this: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” (1 Jn. 5:14-15)

So today, may you partner with God, so that times of life, and healing, and laughter and peace will come to both you and others. Amen.