A Time for Everything

If I had a dime for every time my mom told me to "clean my room" when I was a kid - I'd be a MILLIONAIRE!  How many times have we all had to tell our kids, "If you just took ONE second to hang that up, put that in the hamper, put it away..."  I don't know about your kids, but I never listened.  But if I had, life would have been much easier - and so would cleaning my room have been easier.  But, at the time, I had other things I wanted to do.

Today's reading from the book of Ecclesiastes is a reminder of our use of time.  Here's the reading...

There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven: A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted. A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for building. A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing. A time for throwing stones away, a time for gathering them; a time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing. A time for searching, a time for losing; a time for keeping, a time for discarding.  A time for tearing, a time for sewing; a time for keeping silent, a time for speaking.  A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace.  What do people gain from the efforts they make?  I contemplate the task that God gives humanity to labor at.  All that he does is apt for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does. 

The Scriptures are reminding us to use every moment well - to put all of our efforts into doing whatever God has given us to do in the present moment - because the present moment is the ONLY one we have.

Does it do any good to worry about tomorrow?  No.  We can't do anything to change it or influence it. 

Does it do any good to fret about the past?  No.  What's done is done.  Perhaps our present moment is affected by it (we offer God prayers of thanksgiving or contrition, for example) - but we can't change it.

And so, what time do we really have?  Only the present moment.  THIS is the only one we are given - it is the only one we can change, it is the only one we can us.  So, let's learn to use each moment to do whatever task God has given us...

(and for any of you who, like me, think of the Bird's song when you hear this reading...)