Ecclesiastes- A Time For Everything

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Ecclesiastes- A Time for Everything Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

As the Byrds sang, “To everything turn, turn, turn” based on this passage of Ecclesiastes. There are seasons, there are moments, there is a time for everything. This time right now is the time for this to happen. We want to be “there” but we can only be “here.” When we get “there” it will be the new “here” but for now... we are here. This is the way the teacher of Ecclesiastes talks. It doesn’t settle or answer questions but invites us into the deeper wisdom of mystery. Our brains like certainty but that isn’t the higher wisdom. The teacher starts chapter 3 bookending the life of anyone with “a time to be born, a time to die.” Everything that follows is what takes place between those two “times.” Discern the season. Be present to it. And know that the current reality isn’t a permanent reality.

1. Is there any part of these verses that you find encouraging? Anything that settles your spirit?

2. What part of this passage do you find frustrating or unsettling?

3. Apparently right now is a time for what’s happening. What do you wish was happening right now? What do you wish it was a time for? Take a moment to dream about it and share it.

4. “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” How do you understand this given our current reality?

5. Our current reality is hard on many folks. A global pandemic, greater isolation, political uncertainty, contentious social media, kid’s home from school, economic downturn, winter approaching with shorter days, upcoming holidays... And that doesn’t even include the personal stuff you were already dealing with. Is there anything in this passage that you find comforting in light of all that?

6. Again and again the teacher comes back to a phrase something like this throughout the book, “I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.” What does it feel like for you to return to that phrase?