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. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet 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 (NLT)]
In spite of the ominous looking sky, I thought the rain was more than an hour away, so I confidently set off on my morning walk. By the time I was halfway around the lake, the clouds were delivering their rain. While meteorology isn’t my strong suit, optimism probably is, which explains why I had neither umbrella nor phone with me. As I slowly got soaked, I thought of the quote “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” We can choose to be wet and miserable or wet and happy; either way we’ll still be soaked, so we might as well be wet and happy! Although I didn’t dance, I didn’t let the rain dampen my spirits. By the time I got home, the rain had stopped and I was blessed by a rainbow!
There are those of us for whom the glass is half full and others for whom it is half empty. I’m just thankful there’s anything in the glass! However, for the Thai Buddhist master Ajahn Chaa, that glass was broken. He explained his reasoning by holding up a glass and admiring the way it held water, glistened in the sunlight, and rang when tapped while being fully aware that one day the wind could blow it off the shelf or it would be knocked from the table and the glass would shatter. For the Buddhist master, thinking of the glass as already broken made every minute with it “precious” (whether full or empty). While the monk enjoyed the glass while he had it, he never worried about it breaking nor did he mourn its loss when it broke. Fully aware of life’s fragility and truly appreciative of all it had to offer, rather than a pessimist, Ajahn Chaa was a mindful realist and his explanation was about more than a water glass. Nevertheless, I suspect that the Buddhist master, who spent seven years living in the forest while wandering through the countryside, also knew how to dance in the rain.
Indeed, we live in a broken world—a world with disease, disaster, destruction, storms, and death. Life itself is fragile and far more than glasses shatter and break. Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a time for everything—both pleasant and unpleasant—and no state of affairs in this life is permanent. Rather than static, stable, and enduring, the things of life change, transform, and take flight. Ultimately, God ordains both the times of their coming and going, as well as their purpose. We mortals, however, find His divine timetable mysterious. Like the Buddhist master, we must embrace life’s unpredictability and make the most of what we have while we have it!
I understand there’s a saying in the south: “Be where your feet are.” In other words, be attentive to the present and what God has placed in our paths at the moment. Yes, storms come unexpectedly, glasses break, and people come and go. Like the phases of the moon, life waxes and wanes and, like the tides, it ebbs and flows. The one constant we have is God and the one moment we have is right now! There’s no point wasting the precious minutes of life ruminating over past “would’ves”, “could’ves”, and” should’ves” or worrying about the “what-ifs” of the future when we have been gifted with the present!
Heavenly Father, guide us to be mindful so that we delight in every person, place, thing, circumstance, and breath with which we’ve been blessed. Give us the ability to feel your presence, hear your music, and dance in the rain!
Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more. [Mother Teresa]
Trust the past to God’s mercy, the present to God’s love, and the future to God’s providence. [Augustine]
Last Christmas Eve, people stood in long lines at gas stations and convenience stores to make a last-minute purchase, but it wasn’t for a Christmas gift; they wanted a Powerball ticket! Christmas morning, someone woke up to discover they won $1.817 billion and had become a billionaire overnight! By choosing the lump sum payout of $835 million, their status dwindled to multi-millionaire. Once taxes were paid, approximately $550 million remained which, in anybody’s book, still counts as a fortune!
“He’s so young!” my husband said when my brother died at the age of fifty-six. I reminded him that my dad was the same age when he died. “But he was old!” my husband exclaimed. The difference, of course, is that we were in our fifties when my brother died but only in our twenties when my father did. Now, almost thirty years after my brother’s death, our definition of “young” includes anyone under 85!
According to Bible Gateway, the six verses of the 23rd Psalm are the most popular ones on their site, with verses 4 and 6 usually vying for first place. The seventh most popular verse, however, is today’s verse, Jeremiah 29:11. When people are going through hard times, this is the kind of verse that gets pulled out to reassure them that everything will turn out right.
Although it’s been many years, whenever I read today’s verse about God going both before and after me, I’m reminded of a hiking trip my daughter and I took through the Canadian Rockies. One of our guides led and tied orange ribbons along the trail to mark the way. A second guide (the sweep) followed the last hiker and removed the trail markers. With guides both before us and following us, the group could spread out, find their own pace, and take breaks when needed, while ensuring no one got lost or left behind.
In a recent Christianity Today article, Jared Dodson, teacher of biblical studies and theology at Bushnell University, wrote about his Gen Z students. They don’t ask the age-old question of why God allows bad things to happen to good people because they expect sin and evil in our fallen world. Having seen enough abuse of power, conflict, violence, rioting, exploitation, and mayhem in their young lives, they assume the good will suffer undeservedly. What they don’t understand is why the bad don’t seem to suffer along with them!
