Time to Dance

In just a few weeks we will enter fall. My favorite season of the year. It seems as though summer had just begun when suddenly football has started, and all the pumpkin spice flavored drinks and foods have begun to appear. As much as one may enjoy summer, we cannot lengthen it. Time passes and seasons come and go.

“When I wore a younger man’s clothes,” as Billy Joel sang, one of my favorite bands was The Byrds. They had hits like “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “All I Really Want to Do,” “I Feel a Whole Lot Better,” and “Turn, Turn, Turn.” I didn’t know it at the time, but the lyrics for “Turn, Turn, Turn” were lifted directly from the book of Ecclesiastes.

For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-4)

The truth is time (or seasons) will come and go. We have no control over that. We can lament about the heat or the snow all we want but we still have to deal with it. Similarly, in our lives, there will be seasons of testing and triumph. When the days are dark and cold, lean on the Lord. Trust Him. Believe in His plan. He will see you through it. In Psalm 23, when David writes, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4), he is not just speaking of our final journey – death. He is saying there will be seasons/times when life feels like a valley of death – dark and permanent – but fear not, God is with us. There is something to learn even in our darkest moments. Paul writes in Romans 5, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation” (Romans 5:3-4).

Solomon’s point in Ecclesiastes is that God has a plan for all people. Including the challenging parts. Therefore, He provides cycles of life, each with its work for us to do. Yes, we may face complications and problems that seem to contradict God’s plan, but these should never be barriers to trusting Him. Rather we should see them as opportunities to discover that, without God, life’s problems have no lasting solutions.

I do love autumn. I know that winter is right around the corner and snow is not my favorite meteorological event (definitely not Renée’s) but it too will fade into memory and before I know it, spring will be bursting out with life once again. Whatever it is you may be going through right now, my friends, trust the Lord, and remember, soon it will again be time to dance.            

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