“LIVING IN GOD’S TIME”

 (Ecclesiastes 3)

 

Sometimes my early childhood seems like only yesterday. Time and “times” have flown by so swiftly. But those early days usually seem like a dream. Now, at 82 the inevitability of death is much more real. Times best remembered between birth and death are the “happy times”—times of peace, laughter, celebration. But good and bad, happy and sad times all contribute to the person we become.

 

I was born in 1927, during the Great Depression. One place I lived, and want forget, During my childhood, was Dry Valley, Alabama.  For some, it was a “time of planting,” but of scarce reaping. When I was in the fourth grade, my parents chose to move to Morgan, Alabama. Not many years later,  It was a “time of war”—World War II.

 

After I completed my time in Europe,  in the Army,  to help  bring about peace;  it was for  Kitty and I, “a time to love!”  The years at Greenwood School – notes and more notes. (Very few house phones – no c/p – cell phones, and  no car for students;  very few for parents.  The truth, of course, is that no one can bracket love into an Ecclesiastical “time” frame. Instead, there is a mosaic of overlapping “times” interwoven with love—that great gift from God.

            Our son, like ourselves, have seen history repeat itself—those “times” listed in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. As  verse 15 confirms: “Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before.”

 

 “The book of Ecclesiastes is the soul’s autobiography or the book of human experience.” It is commonly believed that the one who shared his own human experience in this book was King Solomon of Israel. Ecclesiastes 1:1 reads, “The words of the Preacher, son of David, King in Jerusalem.” His appraisal of all life has to offer is found in the key word throughout Solomon’s book: “Vanity!”

 

Ecclesiastes reeks with pessimism, yet its central message is one that millions of people need to comprehend: apart from God, life is full of weariness and disappointment. King Solomon would know, for he tried it all!

 

Apart From God The problem that confronted Solomon confronts all humanity: “How does one find happiness and satisfaction apart from God?” Like Solomon, most of us try—whether from ignorance or contrariness! My parents had tried. But by God’s grace, there  came  that “time” of decision.  Kitty and I  were saved May 7, 1950 and were baptized at the Hopewell Cumberland Presbyterian Church.  No, I’ve not “walked the line” every day since then. Yet the Lord has mercifully spared me the emptiness experienced by so many. And I have been privileged to share with others the One who satisfies.

 

I trust you know there is no greater satisfaction in life than to play a role in reaching a hungry soul for Christ! What better investment can we make of our time?  Solomon had seen for himself the meaninglessness of this brief life, apart from God, and exclaimed, “I know that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever; nothing can be put to it,  nor anything taken from it;  and God doeth it , that men should fear before him.” (Ecclesiastes 3:14). Praise God for his eternal plan for man through Christ’s redemption; for the comfort of knowing we are in his control until the end of time; and for his promise of Romans 8:28, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who has been called according to his purpose.”

 

In “His” Service, 

Roy