There is a Time and a Season For Everything

Wow - time flies!

As the middle of summer approaches, I realize how fast time seems to pass and even though minutes and days sometimes may seem to go by slowly, the weeks and the months flash by so quickly. In the blink of an eye, years are behind you and recent memories become nostalgic.

All the planning and anticipation of parties, weddings, travel, and life's daily activities only seem to come and go in such a tiny fraction of the emotional and mental time spent preparing for these events. I guess there is a time and season for everything.

While we are on our journey, we will encounter emotional battles, physical obstacles, mental stress, financial setbacks, and even spiritual struggles. This will happen several times during our lives. Somehow we pull through, no matter how much we stress or worry that we won't.

Things may seem hard in the moment. When the stress passes and we look back, we then can sense how much has been accomplished and how it all leads to where we are today at this very moment. Those struggles are always lessons. As human beings, distress and hard times are unavoidable. Time will pass and heal us and we will march on.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

We live in a world of change. Nothing stays the same. While there is a season for everything, I also think there is a season for everyone. Everyone that enters our lives has a season. People will come and go in our lives, some for only a moment, some for many years.

When I think of all who have come and gone, I realize how precious my life is and how relationships have impacted my heart. For some people whose season has ended, I mourn their loss and wonder how or if I could ever regain that relationship. For others, I see the significance of the role they had and I am grateful for the sad, but necessary ending.

I came upon an accident yesterday and I later learned the rider of the motorcycle involved in the wreck subsequently died. I felt pain in my heart, not only for his family's loss, but for the awareness of the abrupt ending that has potential to affect anyone of us. Without discrimination. At any moment in time. One minute he was on his way, thinking about his grocery list, or how he could get home quicker by going through a yellow light, and the next minute he was dying on the asphalt.

Life is precious. God has plans for each and everyone of us while we are here on earth. The difficulty is that we just do not know what the plan is or how and when it will end. We have to accept this. Remember, we are only on this planet for a season, so cherish the moments you have. Each and every one of them. Before you know it, time will pass you by.