A Season For Everything

In the 60's, the folk-rock band The Byrds popularized the song "Turn! Turn! Turn!" It climbed to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and gained worldwide popularity. People seemed captivated by the lyrics. Interestingly though, except for the last line, those lyrics are from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes. "To everything there is a season," proclaims the writer of Ecclesiastes, "a time for every purpose under heaven" (3:1). He then lists some human experiences: birth & death, gain & loss, tears & laughter, mourning & dancing. Just as the seasons in nature change, so do the seasons in our lives. Our circumstances never stay the same for long. Sometimes we welcome change in our lives. But often it's difficult, especially when it involves sorrow and loss. Yet, even then we can be thankful that God doesn't change. "I am the Lord," He said through the prophet Malachi, "I do not change" (Malachi 3:6). Because God remains the same, we can rely on him through life's shifting seasons. His presence is always with us (Ps. 46:1). His peace has the power to guard our hearts (Phil. 4:7), and his love provides security for our souls (Rom. 8:39). People like change when it's beneficial to them. If change doesn't benefit them, many people resist change. Life is full of seasons, everyone will go through good & bad seasons. You can have a run of success until something rocks your world, then what? Whether we like it or not, there is a season for everything. I wish we didn't have bad seasons, but we live in a fallen world; so we take the good with the bad.