1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes3:1-8
(Just a disclaimer: I have not mastered this one yet, so I'm talking to myself more than anyone else!)
If our diary entries were decided by the voices that shout the loudest, our lives would be a continuous run of meetings and work commitments.
We live in a society that is rush rush rush and we easily get sucked into this helter-skelter. The famous saying "time is money" is rather scary if we apply it to Jesus' comment "wherever your treasure is, there is your heart..." What would people conclude about my priorities if they audited my diary?
Ecclesiastes (the word means "Wise Teacher") offers another perspective: Balance.
While there is a lot we can say about the poetry of the passage and the perspectives it gives of Providence, I want to reflect on the aspect of variety and balance that the poem gives us.
The saying "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is just one of the perspectives that the Ecclesiastes poem gives us. But there is more: The poet is saying that life is a rich tapestry of many colours and all of these colours are necessary for a meaningful and complete life.
When we fail to appreciate the simple things of life like a family meal together,
when we rush through the sad times of life to avoid too much pain,
when we duck the home challenges in exchange for the work challenges,
when we avoid the silent times with too much chatter or social networking,
when we give in to the demands of the urgent instead of the important
we lose balance and life becomes an unreal chaos that bites us.
Today's reality byte: How balanced is your diary? Is there time for God, your family and you?
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
