The infancy of this year might remind some of us of a certain passage from Ecclesiastes,
“a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.”
You just skipped through after seeing all the repetition, didn’t you? If not, I applaud you, but if you (like me) skipped through this passage, hold your horses.
Isn’t this a proper way to reflect over the year gone past? A way to take inventory of what we said, did, and ultimately ways we grew through it all?
I’d like to think so, considering the “wisest man to ever live” found this list worth putting down. So in light of that, how can we not just get swept up in the repetition of things, thus tuning it all out in the process?
Well, slow down. Actually…slow down. Get in the longer line at the grocery store or even at the stop light (inner self right now: “are you crazy? I’ve got places to be”), cook dinner rather than ordering out, sit down for a conversation with no expected end time, look up from your smartphone and look outside, this list could go on and on.
All this to say, there is a time for everything, but if we don’t make intentional time for anything, then that everything sweeps us up into busyness and by the end of 2026 we won’t know what hit us.
God wants to be invited into every mundane little action of your life, but we must be the one to bring Him in and transform from being just a secular activity to a holy moment. So as you have “a time to ______” this year, slow down and invite Him into it, you never know how He might use you to make an impact (one drop at a time).
Happy New Year everyone!