A Season for Every Purpose Under Heaven

If someone were to ask, “Can you name the four seasons?” many of us would probably respond, “Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.” However, fans of singer-songwriters Simon & Garfunkel in the 1960s might answer, “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme,” recalling their hit tune by the same name.

 

And for those who loved music predating the folk-rock duo by a few years, their answer might be, “Frankie Valli, Bob Gaudio, Tommy DeVito and Nick Massi” – the original members of the singing group, The Four Seasons, with hit songs like “Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “Walk Like a Man.” 

 

Spring, summer, autumn and winter are just
some of the seasons we encounter in life.

Of course, there are lots of other seasons, including: football, baseball and basketball; hunting and fishing; and the holiday season, with Halloween already past and Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s looming ahead.

We encounter many different seasons over our lifetimes. At the moment, we’re in the midst of autumn (or fall, if you prefer). The leaves started changing colors weeks ago and are now tumbling to the ground, forcing many of us to get our rakes and leaf blowers out of mothballs. But every one of us is in a different season of life, ranging from infancy and toddlerhood to the teen years and adulthood. 

 

Even for adults, we’re not locked into one season. There are the early years of finding a job, getting married, having kids, becoming established in a career, then preparing for and entering retirement, and finally, adjusting to the joys and challenges life as a senior citizen.

 

This reminds me of another tune from the ‘60s, “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” composed by Bob Seeger and popularized by The Byrds. You might recall its recurring refrain, “To everything turn, turn, turn, there is a season turn, turn, turn, and a time for every purpose under heaven.” 

 

Interestingly, Seeger acknowledged he wrote only a handful of words in the song: “turn, turn, turn,” and “a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.” Written during the height of the Vietnam war, with tragic reports daily of soldiers killed in battle, it reflected a desperate cry for peace to be restored.

 

The rest of the song, amazingly enough, was taken directly from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, which reads:

“To everything there is a season 
And a time to every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to reap;
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; 

A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; 

A time to gain, 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 of love, and a time of hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.”

Seeger rearranged some of the words to fit the rhythm and rhyme of his song, but as the passage from the Bible’s wisdom literature states, “to everything there is a season – and a time for every purpose under heaven.” It’s just as relevant today as when King Solomon wrote it thousands of years ago. Beginning each new day, it would be helpful to consider exactly what season of life we happen to be in and what it might take to fulfill its “purpose under heaven.”

 

The interesting thing is, as we encounter each new “season,” we never quite know what to expect. You’d think that after navigating the various stages of our younger years we’d be able to relax and think, “Ah, now I’ve got it made.” But as I have learned and continue to learn, each new stage brings adventures and conundrums of its own. Reminds me of the fellow who was asked by his doctor, “How are you doing?” He replied, “I don’t know – I’ve never been this old before.”

 

This brings to mind another passage, Ephesians 5:15-16, which admonishes us to, “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” This isn’t saying a 24-hour day in itself is evil, but once it’s gone it can’t be recaptured. So, we should try to make the best of it.

 

Some days – and seasons – seem like a breeze, no sweat. Others pose adversities we could never have imagined. But the Scriptures teach that God can use every season of life, whether it’s easy or difficult, to work in us as well as through us for His eternal purposes and our ultimate good.

For Everything There Indeed Is a Season

Did you hear about the teacher who asked little Jimmy to name the four seasons? Having been raised in a family of cooks, Jimmy quickly responded, “Salt, pepper, oregano and garlic.” Probably not exactly what she had in mind.

 

But here we are at the start of another season. Recently I noticed a sign in the fitness area of our local YMCA that read, “Fall Prevention Meeting.” I shrugged my shoulders and thought, “What’s the use? Autumn is going to come, just as it does every year, whether we like it or not.” No way to prevent it, right?

 

Okay, all seriousness aside, the arrival of Fall – along with the other seasons of the year – serves as a reminder that time marches on, that the heat of summer will eventually end and that the chill (or deep-freeze) of winter can’t be too far behind. This reminds me of a passage in the Bible which declares, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

 

Back in the mid-1960s the Byrds, an American rock band, recorded a tune called “Turn! Turn! Turn!” that had been written by Pete Seeger in 1959. The song began, 

“To everything (turn, turn, turn)
There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
And a time to every purpose, under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep….”

 

Researching the origins of “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” I discovered Seeger had based the lyrics on pieces of text he’d written in his pocket notebook. He described the words he had copied from the Bible as “verses by a bearded fellow with sandals, a tough-minded fellow called Ecclesiastes.” Well, he was partly right. The words came from the book of Ecclesiastes, attributed to Israel’s King Solomon, who almost certainly had a beard.

 

Seeger used the wording of Ecclesiasts 3:1-8 almost verbatim but turned his composition as a protest song of sorts, adding the words, “A time for peace; I swear it’s not too late.” When the Byrds’ version came out during the height of the Vietnam War, it became a smash hit.

 

For those of us who have lived long enough, we know there indeed are seasons to life – many of them. There are the chronological seasons of infancy, toddlerhood, adolescence, the teen years, early adulthood, mature adulthood (at least for some people), and finally, “Wow! You look good for your age!” We go through seasons of schooling, starting and forging careers, and retirement.

 

The remainder of the passage in Ecclesiastes sums the scope of life very concisely: “a time to tear down and a time to build…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.”

 

But there’s another phrase that quickly follows this passage that’s sometimes overlooked. It says, “[God] has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Sometimes as we’re slogging through a particularly difficult season of life, it seems anything but beautiful. But through the wonders of hindsight, we can discover that despite the pain or stress or anxiety that “season” might have caused, God truly was using it to create something beautiful in our lives.

 

In my own life, I’ve lost track of all the many seasons I’ve gone through. Childhood is but a faint memory; my high school and college years I’d describe as youthful foolishness; marriage and parenting have been seasons of much learning, with some lessons still being learned. And since I left full-time employment and became a grandfather, that’s been a completely different season of its own.

 

I’d like to think that, like the apostle Paul, “When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me” (1 Corinthians 13:11). But I still have my moments, I must admit.

 

The point it, no matter what season of life you find yourself in – in the midst of planting or reaping, laughing or weeping, keeping or throwing away – God does have a purpose for it, even though you might not appreciate what that is until you can view it in retrospect. So if you’re currently mourning, there will yet be a time for dancing and vice versa. To everything – turn, turn, turn – there is a season.

Challenges of Change

Like the relentless, always changing waves of the sea,
everyday life and work are subject to constant change.

How do you react to change? Does it make you excited, eager to tackle the new and unfamiliar? Does it fill you with dread, terrified by what lies ahead? Or do you respond, “Well, it depends – what kind of change are we talking about?”

In Leaders Legacy, the organization I work with, we use a motivational assessment tool, the Birkman Method, a great help with leaders we are coaching and mentoring. One of the key components the Birkman identifies is how much change people want and can manage effectively.

Some people have a strong need for change. They find repetitive routines despiriting and energy draining. From their standpoint, the more change the better. Other people, however, aren’t fond of change. In fact, some resist it in all forms. Slight alterations to their work environment, a store closing at their local mall, or even moving the furniture around at home, can be disconcerting.

Most of us probably fit somewhere in the middle. Variety is the spice of life – as long as it’s not too spicy, right? And in reality, change is a lot more palatable when it’s on our terms, or at least we feel we’ve had input into what changes are made, and how.

But love it, like it or hate it, change is here to stay. The saying used to be that there are two certainties in life – death and taxes. Now there’s a third – change. Whether it’s technology, the economy, political trends, the weather, sports, or society in general, change is the only constant.

Ecclesiastes 3 starts with the declaration, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, and a time to die…a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…” (verses 1-4). If those words sound familiar, most were part of a rock song in the ‘60s, “Turn! Turn!” by The Byrds.

Time’s relentless march ages our bodies, turns babies into children and then adults, wears out our clothes, and brings decay to our cherished machines. As soon as we grow accustomed to anything, it changes. It seems like spring was just yesterday, and today we’re in the midst of autumn. Before you blink your eyes, winter will be here.

Don’t you sometimes wish we could slow down change? Wouldn’t it be nice if some things never changed? We’re hard-pressed to find much in the natural world that doesn’t change, but in the spiritual realm we’re assured we can trust in a faithful, unchanging God.

“I the Lord do not change,” He declares in Malachi 3:6, and Hebrews 13: 8 promises, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

What does this mean for us? When we read God’s promises to His people, we can trust those promises will be fulfilled for us – just as they have for believers through the centuries. He offers us grace, love and mercy, and won’t withhold them because He’s changed His mind.

And as we look beyond this life toward the life to come, we can anticipate what Jesus assured His followers 2,000 years ago: “Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am” (John 14:1-3).

If you were on a boat in the midst of a storm, it would be very reassuring to know the vessel was securely anchored. With Christ – in the midst of change, turmoil, even distressing circumstances – we have that anchor, unaffected by the howling winds and crashing waves we might be forced to confront.

First the Dinosaur, Then the Dodo. Now the Twinkie?

Last week we learned the future of iconic Twinkies was in jeopardy.

When the dinosaur went extinct, nobody noticed. There weren’t any newspapers, because paper hadn’t been invented yet. And “nightly news” was still eons into the future. So when Vinnie the velociraptor breathed his last, it seemed no great loss. Paleontologists attribute the dinosaur demise to the Ice Age, theorizing the huge reptiles weren’t fond of chilling out.

When's the last time you saw
a dodo bird in your back yard?

Later the dodo bird passed from the scene. It’s said this flightless bird was native to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. What we know of its existence was recorded in writings and artwork from the 16^th and 17^th centuries. Now all we have left is the haunting phrase, “Dead as a dodo bird.” Along with the complaint of irritated drivers, “You dodo!”

Then last week came the dire revelation that next in line for extinction could be the Hostess Twinkie. Hostess Brands, in the throes of a bitter, no-win labor dispute, announced plans to declare bankruptcy and liquidate the bakery company after 82 years.

The action placed the iconic Twinkie snack cakes, along with its equally non-healthy but taste-tempting cousins – Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, Suzy Qs and Sno Balls (as well as Wonder Bread) – into instant limbo, on the precipice of permanent elimination.

Imagine a world without Twinkies. We might be able to survive without Ho Hos, and even Ding Dongs. But no Twinkies? Could this signal the beginning of the end for life as we’ve known it?

I grew up with Twinkies, the cream-filled sponge cakes that along with Wonder Bread were advertised on kids’ TV programs like “The Howdy Doody Show.” (Howdy Doody’s gone, too, but let’s keep on point.) Back then we knew and cared little about calories, or the adverse effects of excessive sugar and fat grams. All that mattered was they tasted good, and seemed harmless.

Last week it was reported a number of potential suitors had stepped up to possibly rescue the Twinkie and its kin from baking oblivion. Perhaps. But even so, the shocking news surrounding an American dietary tradition was a grim reminder. There’s a time and season for everything – and when time’s up, beware.

Actually, the old book we know as the Bible said the same thing thousands of years ago, long before snack cakes were even a Twinkie in any baker’s eye. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). This passage was turned into lyrics for the song, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by the American rock group, the Byrds, in the mid-60s.

The next verses talk about “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….”

The Woolworth's 5-and-10 department store was
a fixture for many Baby Boomers in their childhood.

Nothing in this life lasts forever. Countless fixtures of everyday life have passed from existence, ranging from the horse and buggy to 5-and-10 department stores and soda fountains to Brownie cameras to S&H green stamps to Tinker Toys. Here today, gone tomorrow.

So appreciate what you have – and who you have – while you can. Unlike cyclical natural seasons, which proceed from one to the next and then start over again, once the season for something has ended, it likely won’t be coming back.