Readings
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 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 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. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (2 Peter 3:8)
Thought
One of my favourite rooms in our house is our kitchen. I don’t know about you but we have three clocks in there. One is part of the microwave, one is part of the cooker and the other is on the wall. Because of the unusual shape of our kitchen the only one we can actually see while we are sitting at the kitchen table is the one on the wall. Unlike the two digital clocks the clock on the wall is battery operated and is getting on for thirty years old. I like the wall clock very much, but over recent years it has become rather temperamental. Every time that the clocks need to be changed either forwards or backwards with the change between Greenwich Mean Time and British Summer Time the clock stops working. I have, up until now, been able to coax it back into working, but at this last change I couldn’t and it flatly refused to start working again.
This was by no means a disaster as Rob was able to order a replacement control and hands for the clock but it has meant that for a few weeks we were without a working clock in the kitchen that could be seen from the kitchen table. Until the clock stopped working I didn’t realise just how many times I looked at the clock just to check what the time was. I found not having a clock on the wall so frustrating that we ended up having a mobile phone set up on the table with the time showing so that we knew what the time was.
I am one of those people who likes to know what the time is, so much so that we even have a clock out in the garden. I think it is something to do with feeling like you are in control of the day, a sense that you know what is going on and are able to plan what you are doing. The importance of time is clearly shown in the reading from Ecclesiastes where the writer talks about there being a time for everything. This gives a feeling of rhythm and order to life. However, one of the issues that people can have with God is that he doesn’t seem to conform to this idea of order. He does not seem to respect the idea of time and that is because he is not restricted by the confines of time as we know it. In the second letter of Peter we are given some information about time when he writes ‘But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day’.
It’s enough to make you scream sometimes. In such a situation we are left with a choice, either we trust God or we don’t. If we do trust God then we have to accept that he knows best, if we don’t then we will always be frustrated by his timings when they don’t align with ours. It is not always easy to simply trust, but as John Sammis wrote in the old hymn:
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His word, what a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
Prayer
Lord, help me to trust in you.
Amen
Song
The Lord's my Shepherd - Stuart Townend