Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
For everything there is a season, and 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 up that which is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes is probably a book in the Bible that many purposely flip past because it is full of some of the most cynical, pessimistic, ramblings easily snubbing the award for best pitiful candor if we were to compare the book to Job's conversations with his friends while afflicted and David's laments while a fugitive by his own convictions. I happened to value this book though.
As I shared with someone else the other day, I believe it's a poignant and yet necessary piece of work showcasing the withdrawals of a man who'd been an addict of self for quite some time. How astonishing to me that the author, King Solomon, a man who's life revolved around his due diligence and obedience to God and who's wisdom and opulence was a reflection of this, would be found speaking so negatively about life.
Even still, throughout the 12 chapters of this book, this man managed to express the wisdom God so kindly and graciously bestowed upon him and chapter 3 is without exception.
If you are a believer and have never experienced the battle between optimism and pessimism, you might want to keep living just a few more seasons to understand this post then come back at a later time. But for those of you who know exactly what I'm speaking of, I want to share with you some insight about seasons and maybe even help you embrace each with a little more finesse. Is that alright?
One sunny beautiful afternoon, as I sat in the backseat of my Lyft traveling from a congested part of the north side of Chicago, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the snapshots of the cityscape I'd captured before closing them. The breeze was righteous while we road the expressway lightly sprinkled with traffic. My driver asked if I was getting too much wind and I happily told him that I was just fine. Suddenly, I begin to see flashbacks of my night seasons. My many seasons in the dark with no indication of a light at the end of the tunnel and I wondered, "What season am I in right now?"
This question united with a revelation I would share with others; One will never come to appreciate a harvest of joy until they've sown a season or two in tears.
Every season will not come with beautiful breezes and light traffic. Some seasons will come with bottlenecks, hailstorms, and limited visibility.
With that being said, EVERY season is important. No season outweighs the other. Each season is packed with vital riches that if one overlooks he/she will be gravely disadvantaged in the next season.
I read in an article written by a farmer from the Great Lakes region of the U.S, who shared 3 points with other farmers about when it is not a favorable time to fertilize the soil. (Fertilize-make (soil or land) more fertile or productive by adding suitable substances to it. ~Wikipedia)
He said it is best not to fertilize soil, when the soil is covered in snow or frozen, when the top 2 inches of the soil is covered in precipitation, or when local forecasts predicts that there will be greater than a 50% chance of rain exceeding an inch in a 12 hour time-frame for granular fertilizer and over an inch and a half in a 24 hour time-frame for manure. These rules are important to farmers in this particular region because farmers have made the mistake of fertilizing their soil during one or more of these times and lost valuable nutrients when the weather conditions changed, which were costly.
There is a season...
Let's use the agricultural concept of fertilizing and introduce it to the spiritual aspect of our lives, imagining our entire lives to be like fields of crops in a region where all four seasons will show up.
FALL: The season where you must die! Die to self and your expectations. Die to the expectations and the opinions of man. You can't stay the same! If you're expecting a harvest you have never seen or better yet, want to come into agreement with the will of God, you must die. You must die and be buried. You must be willing to forgo a previous life that either contradicted God's order of operation or a life that you deemed attractive which was not necessarily beneficial to your walk. Anyone who tries to save their life will lose it. Anyone who loses their life will preserve it. (Luke 17: 33) Habits must die! Immature appetites must die. Old tongues must die! Certain behaviors must die! A person unwilling to die in their fall will not be able to successfully handle the next season.
WINTER: The season where you will experience the sufferings of Christ. (2 Timothy 2:12) Understand, this is actually something that was dropped into my spirit three years ago around this exact same time when I caught the brunt of my hell, your sufferings in itself has an order to it. The temptations, the loneliness, the betrayals, the mocking, the accusations, the unjust verdicts, and crucifixions, all make up a rhythm, that a lot of people have missed because they refused to grasp the opportunity presented to them during these trials to gather the ingredients necessary to take care of their soil. Your trials will act as fertilizer to your soil.
SPRING: There will be seasons where you must tend to your soil by cultivating it, watering it, nurturing it, inspecting it, and of course sowing what you obtained in your winter. In order to produce a bountiful, profitable, fruitful, harvest, you must be willing to dig in the dirt of your life and love on it. This is probably the only time I will encourage anyone to revisit your past. You're not visiting your past to play in it or to wallow in it, you're going back to find the mulch! There's great fertilizing material in your past if you can stand the stench. Ha! Everyone knows manure fertilizer offends the nostrils but isn't it something that it's used to grow crops? You can't be ashamed of your dirt. Don't shun the dirt! You need it!
SUMMER: Harvest time baby! *rubs hands together* This is the season where the earth will quake. The grounds will break open. What was buried will resurrect. What was resurrected can now be seated at the table. What was sown in tears will be reaped in joy and you'll have testimonies for days. The fruit of your labor will be made manifest. Then you can ascend to new heights and take on new territory. I must warn you that your harvest time will snitch on your other seasons. It will bear witness to how you've sown and what you've sown. I've seen people sow nothing but bitterness and dishonor and reaped thorns and thistles during this time! They had nothing to carry them over for another fall and winter.
Be not deceived beloved, for whatsoever a man sows, that he shall reap! (Galatians 6:7)
I don't believe these seasons are isolated to a few believers, this is specific to all. I also don't believe that you will only experience summers and no winters or springs and no falls. I told you, all of these seasons will pull from each other. What season am I in right now? Chile...
I feel like I'm in my spring. It's good and terrible! Plus, there's just certain parts of my dirt I don't care to touch. I have to be honest, it stinks really bad. #Sidebar: You have to be very careful how you handle your springs! This is where you can fall victim to comparisons, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, and defeat. You will have a very open view of those experiencing their harvest while you're covered in manure. Don't stop tending to your soil! You must catch for yourselves the little foxes that destroy the vine! (Songs of Solomon 2:15) Even if they are the rascals birthed of your own emotions!
Poor tenders of their souls (soil) can welcome drought and famine due to laziness in their springs and rebellion in their falls. Poor tenders of their souls can welcome snowstorms in their winters and floods/tsunamis and hurricanes in their summers due to dishonor and God awful wickedness. Good stewards of their souls will have a plentiful harvest that can stretch past their summers sustaining them in their winters and falls. They'll be buffeted and protected by their investments during the inevitable. They will be able to see the small cloud like a man's hand in the distance (1 Kings 18:44) and anticipate the season ahead making the necessary adjustments. They'll have a song to sing whether rain, hail, sleet, or snow with a deep rooted knowing that God makes everything beautiful in it's time.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
One sunny beautiful afternoon, as I sat in the backseat of my Lyft traveling from a congested part of the north side of Chicago, I closed my eyes and enjoyed the snapshots of the cityscape I'd captured before closing them. The breeze was righteous while we road the expressway lightly sprinkled with traffic. My driver asked if I was getting too much wind and I happily told him that I was just fine. Suddenly, I begin to see flashbacks of my night seasons. My many seasons in the dark with no indication of a light at the end of the tunnel and I wondered, "What season am I in right now?"
This question united with a revelation I would share with others; One will never come to appreciate a harvest of joy until they've sown a season or two in tears.
Every season will not come with beautiful breezes and light traffic. Some seasons will come with bottlenecks, hailstorms, and limited visibility.
With that being said, EVERY season is important. No season outweighs the other. Each season is packed with vital riches that if one overlooks he/she will be gravely disadvantaged in the next season.
I read in an article written by a farmer from the Great Lakes region of the U.S, who shared 3 points with other farmers about when it is not a favorable time to fertilize the soil. (Fertilize-make (soil or land) more fertile or productive by adding suitable substances to it. ~Wikipedia)
He said it is best not to fertilize soil, when the soil is covered in snow or frozen, when the top 2 inches of the soil is covered in precipitation, or when local forecasts predicts that there will be greater than a 50% chance of rain exceeding an inch in a 12 hour time-frame for granular fertilizer and over an inch and a half in a 24 hour time-frame for manure. These rules are important to farmers in this particular region because farmers have made the mistake of fertilizing their soil during one or more of these times and lost valuable nutrients when the weather conditions changed, which were costly.
There is a season...
Let's use the agricultural concept of fertilizing and introduce it to the spiritual aspect of our lives, imagining our entire lives to be like fields of crops in a region where all four seasons will show up.
FALL: The season where you must die! Die to self and your expectations. Die to the expectations and the opinions of man. You can't stay the same! If you're expecting a harvest you have never seen or better yet, want to come into agreement with the will of God, you must die. You must die and be buried. You must be willing to forgo a previous life that either contradicted God's order of operation or a life that you deemed attractive which was not necessarily beneficial to your walk. Anyone who tries to save their life will lose it. Anyone who loses their life will preserve it. (Luke 17: 33) Habits must die! Immature appetites must die. Old tongues must die! Certain behaviors must die! A person unwilling to die in their fall will not be able to successfully handle the next season.
WINTER: The season where you will experience the sufferings of Christ. (2 Timothy 2:12) Understand, this is actually something that was dropped into my spirit three years ago around this exact same time when I caught the brunt of my hell, your sufferings in itself has an order to it. The temptations, the loneliness, the betrayals, the mocking, the accusations, the unjust verdicts, and crucifixions, all make up a rhythm, that a lot of people have missed because they refused to grasp the opportunity presented to them during these trials to gather the ingredients necessary to take care of their soil. Your trials will act as fertilizer to your soil.
SPRING: There will be seasons where you must tend to your soil by cultivating it, watering it, nurturing it, inspecting it, and of course sowing what you obtained in your winter. In order to produce a bountiful, profitable, fruitful, harvest, you must be willing to dig in the dirt of your life and love on it. This is probably the only time I will encourage anyone to revisit your past. You're not visiting your past to play in it or to wallow in it, you're going back to find the mulch! There's great fertilizing material in your past if you can stand the stench. Ha! Everyone knows manure fertilizer offends the nostrils but isn't it something that it's used to grow crops? You can't be ashamed of your dirt. Don't shun the dirt! You need it!
SUMMER: Harvest time baby! *rubs hands together* This is the season where the earth will quake. The grounds will break open. What was buried will resurrect. What was resurrected can now be seated at the table. What was sown in tears will be reaped in joy and you'll have testimonies for days. The fruit of your labor will be made manifest. Then you can ascend to new heights and take on new territory. I must warn you that your harvest time will snitch on your other seasons. It will bear witness to how you've sown and what you've sown. I've seen people sow nothing but bitterness and dishonor and reaped thorns and thistles during this time! They had nothing to carry them over for another fall and winter.
Be not deceived beloved, for whatsoever a man sows, that he shall reap! (Galatians 6:7)
I don't believe these seasons are isolated to a few believers, this is specific to all. I also don't believe that you will only experience summers and no winters or springs and no falls. I told you, all of these seasons will pull from each other. What season am I in right now? Chile...
I feel like I'm in my spring. It's good and terrible! Plus, there's just certain parts of my dirt I don't care to touch. I have to be honest, it stinks really bad. #Sidebar: You have to be very careful how you handle your springs! This is where you can fall victim to comparisons, jealousy, feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, and defeat. You will have a very open view of those experiencing their harvest while you're covered in manure. Don't stop tending to your soil! You must catch for yourselves the little foxes that destroy the vine! (Songs of Solomon 2:15) Even if they are the rascals birthed of your own emotions!
Poor tenders of their souls (soil) can welcome drought and famine due to laziness in their springs and rebellion in their falls. Poor tenders of their souls can welcome snowstorms in their winters and floods/tsunamis and hurricanes in their summers due to dishonor and God awful wickedness. Good stewards of their souls will have a plentiful harvest that can stretch past their summers sustaining them in their winters and falls. They'll be buffeted and protected by their investments during the inevitable. They will be able to see the small cloud like a man's hand in the distance (1 Kings 18:44) and anticipate the season ahead making the necessary adjustments. They'll have a song to sing whether rain, hail, sleet, or snow with a deep rooted knowing that God makes everything beautiful in it's time.
Ecclesiastes 3:11
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.
Amen and amen! So glad that I listened and came to this blog post!!!
ReplyDelete