A Time for Pandemic June 16, 2020

I've got a song in my head, and you know it.  Turn, Turn, Turn recorded by The Byrds in 1965-ish.  I don't remember the first time I heard it on the radio.  But it has always resonated in me.  The music is alive and the lyrics are full of the paradoxes of humanity.  Boy! It's been a long time, but that piece of music has transcended the decades and generations.

A time to...
     be born/die;     plant/reap     kill/heal     break down/build up;


     weep/laugh;    mourn/dance;       cast away stones/gather stones together;


     embrace/refrain from embracing;     gain/lose;     keep/cast away;


     rend/sew;     keep silence/speak;     love/hate;     war/peace.


You could spend all day contemplating the depth of these human experiences and where your own spirit has lived in these words.

What do I mean?  Take for instance, A time to hate.  It's been a long time, but if I go far enough back into my childhood experiences I could tell you for whom I held hatred in my heart.  And I could tell you why I held it for so long. (As a follower of Jesus, hatred is directed only toward those injustices that oppose the attributes of God)  I could tell you when I've wanted to tear things apart and when I've wanted to sew things back together.  In every word of this list I can identify myself.

These words are taken from the poem Ecclesiastes 3.1-8.  King Solomon is the author according to tradition. It has a very long range of conjectured dates between 1000-200 B.C.  It shouldn't surprise that the words of the song have transcended the last six decades.

Solomon's musings about life are placed in the context of wanting to find purpose in his own labor and by extension the labor of humanity.  With each achievement, award, accolade he concludes that it is all "vanity."  Beautiful gardens, crafts, vineyards, wisdom itself are given to one person who ultimately will die and give these gifts to someone else who could just as easily be a fool and squander the gift.  So the Poet concludes that all our efforts only find their joy if they are done in relationship to God's will.

Whether we live or die, gain or lose, love or hate (that which is evil) everything in a person's life exists in the shadow of God.  Therefore, as children of God, it is incumbent upon us to consider God in all of our actions and especially our thoughts.