Turn, Turn, Turn
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
The first eight verses of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 are some of the most well known verses in the Old Testament. There was even a popular song based on these verses sung by The Byrds in the late 1960’s. It was entitled “Turn, Turn, Turn”, and emphasized the need to turn to peace during the time of the Vietnam War.
The original verses in scripture were written by the wise King Solomon and focus on opposites: birth and death, planting and harvesting, taking life and extending life, tearing down and building up, crying and laughing, mourning and celebrating, purging and collecting, embracing and refraining from embracing, finding and losing, keeping and throwing away, tearing apart and putting together, keeping one’s mouth shut and speaking, loving and hating, going to war and keeping the peace. That is quite an extensive list which seems to cover just about every major action, attitude, and emotion in a person’s life. The first and last entries in the list are pretty much out of our control. The rest of them, however, are choices that we make in reaction to life’s situations and dilemmas.
Every person will experience events which call for a response one way or the other. To everything there is a season, and everything happens for a reason. The best response comes when we allow Christ to rule in our hearts. When we allow Him to have reign over our thought life and our actions, it takes much of the guesswork out of our decision making. It’s not so much WWDJ, “what would Jesus do?”, but what would He have us to do? Of course, even with the help of the Holy Spirit, decisions can still be a tough call. No one ever said that life was easy. We just need to pray for the Lord to give us direction to know what action to take or perhaps to let it go. As Kenny Rogers sang, sometimes we just have to “know when to hold ’em, and know when to fold ’em”.