A time for everything

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which 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 get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, 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 of war, and a time of peace. Ecclesiastes 3 1-8

This verse is very important to hold onto when it seems that all has gone wrong. To know that in life, there is a cycle and a purpose to every season when all seems lost, to feel as though God has abandoned us. And yet the death-which may seem so wrong, may bring forth a life greater than that which has died.

So much of my recent readings and studies have been pointing to this same truth. When you come upon the same truth repeated from various sources, it's time to pay attention.

I've been reading Wholeheartedness: Busyness, Exhaustian and Healing the Divided Heart by Chuck DeGroat. He gives the example of the catapillar as it crawls on the ground to eat. And all it wants to do is eat but it programmed to fly. In the period between (the death) A change happens in the mush of the new becomming creature and it emerges from this a new creature that can fly. He claims the process that came before was not wrong, or less than, it was a necessary season in the life of the butterfly. The creature would never fly if it had not first crawled on the dirt and ate.

Marc David talks about James Hillmans acorn theory in his Psychology of Eating online course. He discussed how the acorn must spend time hidden in the dirt, the decay the muck and manure and that is where it draws it's nutrients to become what it must become, a mighty oak tree

Jesus himself says in John 12:24 Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Death and I don't mean just physical death, but death to things that are unproductive, old ways and habits, darkness, this winter season we are in, it is necessary for growth. We all celebrate the good times. The seasons of summer, when colors are bright, the sun is shining and things are growing all around and within us. But all of time is essential. We need to not be discouraged in the dark times, the times of loss and pain. For those times can be used by God as a source of nutrients, a way to soften us, to break us a part to fully expand in growth and potential to draw us closer to God in utter dependence. These things that we dislike, that can sometimes make us uncomfortable, feel lost or confused are part of the process that make us fully who we are meant to be

This post has been part of the five minute friday writing community. Writers write for 5 minutes on a given prompt each week.