365 Reflections

Live long enough and you'll eventually find yourself stuck. You cant change the conditions of your life. You can't change the people around you. You can't find your way out of a season that seems to last forever. What do you do? Solomon explores this in Ecclesiastes 8. He starts by giving practical advice when you find yourself working for a difficult person. Perhaps a king.  Ecclesiastes 8:2 (ESV) I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. God's oath here refers to the sovereign choice of God to elect certain people to high office and remove others. Daniel backs this up well: Daniel 2:21 (ESV) He (God) changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; It was God who gave the people their kings - Saul, David, and now Solomon. It was God who used Pharaoh to show His glory in delivering His people from Egypt's grip and God who used Nebuchadnezzar to punish them ...

I know we will spend most of our lives obsessing or dreaming or at least thinking of the things we want in life. But between getting them there will be long and diverse seasons where we get the opposite of what we want.  For me, I like birth, gathering, embracing, laughing, keeping, love and peace. But those events are not guaranteed for us as constants in the universe. Solomon saw both the good and bad times of life and realized that everything has a season. Ecclesiastes 3:1 (ESV) For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: Then he writes: Ecclesiastes 3:2–8 (ESV) a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time ...