Opposites

I was thinking...

The Wisdom writer of Ecclesiastes wrote long ago, “There’s a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens…” (3:1, CEB). Meteorological Fall began last week on September 1. Of course, it certainly hasn’t felt much like fall with the hottest of hot weather. Stay cool out there. Nonetheless, fall is coming, and the leaf peepers will clog the highways and byways of North Georgia. One of the beauties of Georgia is that four seasons are experienced in all their bluster.

The writer of those Old Testament words wasn’t just referring to the rotation of the earth. As a matter of fact, they thought the world was flat in those days. The writer was referring to what he was observing in his life. “A time for giving birth and a time for dying, a time for planting and time for uprooting what was planted, a time for killing and a time for healing, a time for tearing down and a time for building up, a time for crying and a time for laughing, and time for mourning and a time for dancing, a time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones, a time for embracing and a time for avoiding embraces, a time for searching and a time for losing, a time for keeping and a time for throwing away, a time for tearing and a time for repairing, a time for keeping silent and a time for speaking, a time for loving and a time for hating, a time for war and a time for peace.” (3:2-8, CEB)

If we live long enough, we discover what the writer discovered, and that is that the one constant thing in life is the opposites. There is love, and there is hate. There is joy, and there is sorrow. The list, in many ways, is exhaustingly long with opposites. None of us are immune to the opposites of life. There are days filled with tremendous satisfaction as well as days filled with overwhelming dissatisfaction. Opposites are among us. The question for me, and maybe for you too, is “what are we to do about the opposites?”

I wish every day could be a good day, don’t you? But the reality is bad days exist, and sometimes they turn into bad weeks, months, years, and even bad seasons. The challenge then becomes how not to let those bad opposites hold on so long that we miss the better opposites that await us just around the corner.

Last week Sharon and I celebrated 50 years of marriage. I wish I could tell you that every day of those 50 years was a blessed day. This would not be true. We raised three children, who became teenagers, so you know those days were filled with opposites. We’ve served small and large churches together. So you know, if you know about church life, those days were filled with opposites. We have had cancer knock on our door. So you know, those days were filled with opposites. We have had loved ones die at a way too early age. So you know, we know about opposites. Life is filled with opposites, and so have our lives known opposites.

Here is one thing I know, and I think Sharon would say she knows (and we’ve had to learn this the hard way through bad opposite days, weeks, months, and seasons): “God uses all things for good.” This doesn’t mean God causes all things that happen. God doesn’t send bad opposites so that we’ll appreciate the good opposites. No, we believe God meets us in every place, good and bad, whether those places were places God would have chosen for us or not. Across 50 years of marriage, we have seen in ourselves, and in so many others, that God is never defeated; God uses all things, bad opposites and good opposites, for God’s good. This is a foundation that has sustained us, and continues to sustain us.

The writer of Ecclesiastes was wise when he wrote: “There is a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens.” And I write, “God is present in every season and every matter under heaven.” Lord, help me to see and hear you there. Maybe that is your prayer, too.

Always thinking...