“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:” Ecclesiastes 3:1
This year is quickly coming to a close. In just a few more days we will be celebrating New Year’s Day and depending on what part of the country you live, you will be eating your variation of a New Year’s dinner. For our family, it is pork and sauerkraut that begins our New Year traditions. I would love to hear what yours are!
But just as we look forward to the start of a new year, we also look back on the year that is ending and we tend to take stock of all we have accomplished or not accomplished as the case may be. We consider our new year’s resolutions for those who make them. We consider all the things we want to do in the new year and hopefully Covid-19 will become something we learn to live with as we continue living our life’s taking all the necessary precautions that are pertinent to who we are and our own health conditions. I hope Covid-19 doesn’t remain something we fear and hide from. It is a balancing act.
But then life is a balancing act. We all have many activities we juggle…time spent with family and friends, time for work and time for rest. We have to make sure we spend the right amount of time doing each activity from cooking, to cleaning, to work, to play and everything else. It can get a tad overwhelming when we think about it.
One of the important questions we need to ask as we consider the New Year, is of all the things we want to do and accomplish, what do we need to give us in order to be successful. Because the thing is we can’t do it all. I know, most media outlets would like you to believe you can…but there are only twenty-four hours in any given day and we need to sleep for 8 of them. If you work then another 40 hours or however many you are required to do for your job takes another chunk out of your available time. And there are other activities that are sort of mandatory like showers…brushing our teeth…you know…general maintenance of our health.
Once we understand those activities that are required, we can see just how much time we actually have to get our projects done. And that is where you will have to decide what you really want to do and what you will have to either give up entirely or for a season.
Giving up what no longer fits into your life or no longer brings you joy is not failure. It is reprioritizing what is important to you. Activities you did 10 years ago may no longer be relevant to you or even enjoyable. Maybe your health is saying to you that at 60 water-skiing may be something you might want to consider giving up…maybe not.
Maybe this is why at this time of year I love the passage in Ecclesiastes that teaches us there is a time for everything. Today, we all need to discern, what time is it for us?
Peace,
Pastor Beth
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