OUR TIMES and SEASONS

There is an old saying that says there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. The challenge is to determine what season you are in or approaching in your life and how to use the time that will be allotted to you.

As I was contemplating this thought at 5:10 this morning, it came to me that time can be thought of as chunks of opportunity for your discretionary use.  This chunk of opportunity – 5 minutes, or 15, or, if you are fortunate, an hour or more will leave its own legacy depending on what it is directed to.  It can be saved and added upon and recycled in our own or another’s life or it will simply evaporate—it can be wasted.
 

So what did I do?  I got up, put on my pants, and started writing. My little ‘season’ allowed me to do this before the phone started ringing, before people showed up on my doorstep, before the business or doctor’s office opened up, before the birds needed feeding, or even the sun came up.

   

What do you want to do with your time while the season allows it? 

It may have to do with ‘goals.’  For years when I heard anyone mention ‘goals’ I dismissed it immediately because so many goals or resolutions are proposed but so soon shuttled or forgotten.  We seem to get caught in the current of life’s demands and are carried downstream toward some unsought destination that had little to do with our plans, hopes, or dreams.  Why?  Rather than act, we would be acted upon.  Anne Murray’s old song “Time, Don’t Run Out On Me” came to mind. 

Time, unless we act, will run out.

To override the otherwise inexorable inevitability I have found to be a word of wisdom a little gem of thought that was suggested by an old carpenter.  He said, if you want to build a house (or anything, I extrapolated –such as a life) start sawing.  If you want to be loved, start loving.  If you want to be smart, start reading and observing.  If you want friends, be a friend. If you have a winter of discontent, start preparing for a spring of renewal and new beginnings.

Start sawing, walking, running, serving, painting, reading, fasting, singing, working.

Just start.