As we continue our look at Ecclesiastes 3, we come to verse 6. We have already considered the author’s comparison of planting andharvesting, of weeping and laughing, of throwing and gathering stones, as well as other opposites. In this time of social change, of election rhetoric, and the need to be careful in our daily lives, we may feel a lot more like mourning than dancing. We may not feel much like working for healing because we just want to return to ‘the good old days’ of just over half a year ago.
The writer of Ecclesiastes suggests that our lives are
filled with a time to search and a time to give up (NIV). Other
translations say, a time to seek, and a time to lose (English Standard
Version), a time to search and a time to quit searching (NLT), a time
to search and a time to count as lost (Berean), and even a time to get,
and a time to lose (KJV).
Some commentators say that this verse refers to getting possessions and knowing that sometimes we lose them. There are many other things in life that we try to get. We may desire fame or family or just the right job. We may also try to gain spiritual things. This song by the Maranatha Singers reminds us the most important thing to seek is the Kingdom of God.
No matter what we are looking for or trying to get, we may fear the loss of it. Margaret Silf in The Other Side of Chaos notes “One of our biggest fears, and the cause of so much resistance to change, is that we think we are on the verge of losing, irrevocably, what we value from our past….To embrace the unknown future that change and transition hold out to us is, we feel, to risk losing all that we have invested in our lives so far.” She goes on to remind readers that “The past is already ours; these photos and mementos remind us daily that this treasure that was ours is not lost but carried with us, not just in our bags but in our hearts. And the future is ours, too, to explore and, we hope, to make a contribution to.”
Psalm 31:15 assures us that God is in control, even if it
feels like everything around us is out of control and lost. Romans 8:38-39
encourages us in times of transition with the promise that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able
to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In fact, from the loss can grow something new. The Rev.
Dr. Mary Brennan Thorpe (Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Virginia)
notes, “And so the tree falls. The beloved dies. The earthly form is gone, and
yet something, some little thing, a sprout of a new oak, a laugh from a
grandchild that echoes the timbre of his grandfather’s, reminds us that nothing
is forever but everything is forever. Our lives are eternal, in ways we cannot
comprehend. For that, thanks be to God, who gives life and then gives it again.”
What are you seeking?
What are you afraid you might lose?
