There is Time

Fall is the time of year when every window in my home becomes a picture frame that holds a spectacular canvas of Creation that God paints with perfect predictability. I'm not alone in my love of fall. This season brings me home and my heart and soul are more at peace here than at any other time of the year. My purpose in this life is the work I take up within the walls of our Domestic Church. Caring for the people we raise and have raised here and all those who come and go. It is no longer my own children grinding crackers into the carpet but my grandchildren. I still can't believe how the time passed so quickly. The changing leaves remind me of the immense beauty to be found in the changing of a season. Letting go of the branch of the previous year to rest in the winter and be made new in the spring is God's perfect illustration for how we are to embrace the season's of our life.

In the scripture I share below I cannot help but notice that God assigns these times as separate and unique seasons. While there may be times the seasons are mingled, we might dance in our mourning; perhaps the lesson, which I am only able to more fully appreciate in this season of my life, is that we should take the time to experience each "time" as a separate experience. So often we are programmed to worship at the altar of multi-tasking. To make use of every moment in time and accomplish as much as humanly possible within it. It is the way of the world. How productive we feel checking our email at a stop light. Making a phone call while we prepare our food. Catching up on social media while lying in bed at night beside our spouse. Multi-tasking is the way of the world isn't it? But what is God's plan for us? What has He outlined in scripture. What gain is there from our toil?

Time for Everything

Ecclesiastes 3:3-13

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what 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 seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, 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 for war, and a time for peace.

What gain has the worker from his toil? I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God's gift to man." God makes everything beautiful in it's time. Do we hate to cook? Maybe we have stolen the time God has allotted for us to cook and given it over to a task of our own choosing? For each of our tasks there is time. God himself ordered the hours of the day. If we needed more time, He would have provided it. The madness of our day begins when we reject God's perfect plan for every day, every season. We read in verse 13 that everyone should take pleasure in their toil.

When my home bustled with a young family, laundry was a never ending chore. I fought it, I cursed it. I tackled it and brought it under submission but it was my least favorite chore. Until I read this verse. "Pleasure in toil?" Seriously? Taking it to prayer I began to see that the problem was less the laundry and more the time it took. I resented it. I could be doing so many other more important things. I decided to make laundry time a regular part of my day, my week. Rather than try to squeeze it in during the pockets of time I found, I would give it the time it needed. I began to do the laundry with greater care. I treated all the small stains, noticed mending to be done. I added more fabric softener and began to pull out the clothes as they dried so that some things wouldn't overheat, while others were drying longer. I folded more neatly, hung and even lightly ironed the pieces that needed it.

In giving the laundry it's time I started to notice how much my children had grown. Their little arms and legs fit into this pieces of fabric this year but when the leaves fell again, they would not. The pink princess shirt days were numbered and more often than not laundry time gave way to prayers of thanksgiving for all the people who wore those clothes. Thanks was offered for the bath time that ended in a big, warm towel hug. Laundry time was quiet time in the morning or late evening while everyone slept. I listened to some of my favorite praise music and the warmth and smell of the clean clothes made me feel rich and grateful. It led me to think of those without clean water, or plumbing; of women across time and distance washing their scant belongings by a river's edge. Doing each and everything in its' own time is a lesson I am still learning but the more I surrender to the ordering of God's plan for my life, for my days, the more pleasure I find in the toil. I enjoy most all of my work. This is God's gift to me. I am as busy as the next gal. I always have been. Opening my heart in this way increases my joy. Whenever I find myself feeling spread too thin, or running hither and yon, I return to this scripture and I correct my course. In the fall, particularly, I take an inventory of how I am spending my time. I pause more to appreciate the landscape. I cook and bake more, without concern for the temperature. I reflect. I stay home, I sit on my deck. I spend time with my husband. I look to what is done and what is still to do in my life. I look ahead and behind with thanksgiving. How generous is our God that He would desire pleasure for us in our toil? How magnificent are His works. I pray for you pleasure in your toil.