Thursday January 10: 4 Shevat

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-3)

When it is time to pluck up, it’s probably not the time to be planting; when its time to build up, its not the best time to break down. Solomon stated the obvious: there are certain seasons given for certain actions, and once that purpose has been attained, it is time to move on to the next season.

In our lives, everything has a season that allows for God’s purpose to be fulfilled in us and though us. The challenge for us is to recognize those seasons and to realize when one season is over and when it is time to proceed to the next step in our maturing process. It is also important for us to recognize that the season we are in may not be the season that our neighbor is experiencing.

As I began exploring the Hebraic roots of my faith, there was a time that I plucked up a lot of things that had been planted in my life. I was very zealous to do this because I wanted to know the truth. I naively believed that everyone else should be interested in plucking up those same things because I assumed that they are experiencing the same season I was. I found out that wasn’t always the case. Not only that, sometimes I ended up pulling up the very things God was trying to plant.

Several years ago, Beth and I decided to build an addition onto our home. Initially, we were in a season of breaking down. By that I mean, there was a lot of demolition and destruction; tearing down this wall, removing this, etc. But it was during this process that I realized not everything that had been part of the old house needed to be torn down. Specifically, I came dreadfully close to removing a load-bearing wall.

My point is that my faith walk over the last 30 years could be summed up like this: I took my house of belief and laid it out all over the ground. I started to sort and sift through the things that comprised what I had believed. Sometimes, I found there were bricks in my house of beliefs that needed to go. I didn’t throw them at someone else, nor did I use them as a weapon; I set them aside. I also learned many of the things I had been taught were stones; by that I mean, things that were of eternal value – things God had given to me. And so, as we progress from one season to another, remember that these seasons are God-induced and are purposeful. May we recognize the season we are in and dedicated ourselves to seeing to it that God’s purpose in and through our lives is accomplished.