BH Bulletin - Thursday 12 November 2020

Thought for the Day by Alex Forrest
(Voluntary Staff Worker)

​There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2     a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5   a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
15 Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.[b]

On Sunday you may have heard some of Joe Biden’s speech after winning the presidential election. In his words; “the Bible tells us that to everything there is a season — a time to build, a time to reap, a time to sow. And a time to heal. This is the time to heal in America”.
Over the last few years, it feels like we’ve gone through a lot of seasons in our lives; Brexit season, Lockdown 1 season, Lockdown 2 season, ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ season, more election seasons than I care to remember! The message from Ecclesiastes reminds us that we can expect these seasons to come and go in life. A new president, a new movement, a new disturbing social media trend.

We see things moving quickly around us all the time, as quickly as the Earth moves. We can’t keep up with all the world throws at us on a daily basis. It can make us feel hopelessly disorientated, struggling to keep up with the pace in which these seasons change. The daily grind we go through doesn’t seem to make any difference to the grand scheme of things and we’re left feeling bereft and exhausted from all our seemingly fruitless endeavours. In the words of Paul McCartney, sometimes “this ever-changing world in which we live in makes us give in and cry”.

The reason we find the constantly changing world so hard is that we weren’t really made for it. “God has set eternity in human hearts”. We were made for a better world than this, a perfect world where things don’t come and go, things don’t go from beautiful to ugly, things don’t live and die. A world where we can finally see the fruit of our work in this life.
And the only way that we will ever be able to see that world, and experience it’s benefits in this life is by growing more and more in our trust for God’s plan. When our minds are fully focussed on this life, we see only chaos and futility. When our eyes are focussed on eternity, we see an almighty and intricate plan and a world with a purpose, meaning we can enjoy the gifts God has given us to enjoy, without mourning how temporary they are.

Joe Biden’s call for a season of healing may become reality, or it may not. This new vaccine may bring about a quick end to the Covid season we’re currently in, or it may well not. But what we can have certainty in, is God’s control over all of history, calling all things into action at the right times so that he might be glorified.
Alex

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