For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what 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 seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, 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.
– (from the Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3, various verses)
This Bible text was the subject of a podcast devotional I heard this week and it asked what I thought was a good question: Is this text fatalistic or a message of hope? Is the message that there’s nothing you can do, everything is already determined, or that I can hope, because today might be the right time for change or joy?
When I’m feeling stuck or constricted by my own self-appraisal or the world around me, can I believe that today can be the day things change, that doors open, that burdens are released? When I’ve told myself to lower my expectations and accept limitations, what if God instead asks me to hope, and offers me a new path?