“For everything there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
This verse has been rattling around in my brain. It is the upcoming Scripture reading in the Narrative Lectionary, one of the readings for a wedding tomorrow, and the passage I shared earlier this week for chapel at the nursing homes.
Yet even without those connections, Ecclesiastes’ words hit home in August. For many of us, this is the season of school shopping and new schedules. The matters under heaven have to do with bus stops and books, phones and friends.
Last night I had a mini-date with my planner, where the seasons and matters under heaven are written.* Paging through the symmetry of the days and weeks, you can see Ecclesiastes is right – there is a box on the page for every matter. The seasons fit onto pages. We move from one box to the next, one page at a time. There is a sense of peace in seeing what comes next, at least according to what we’ve written out.
In Ecclesiastes, chapter three, he writes out the seasons as though he is constructing a planner page. There is a time for this and a time for that – a box, a page, a space. But his planner pages have no registration deadlines or meetings or medical appointments or early release days! In chapter three, there is more of a to-be list than a to-do list. The boxes and pages of the planner Ecclesiastes is writing contain instructions for how to be human.
- One day you, you will laugh and be filled with joy. On another day, there will be time to weep.
- In this space of time, be sure to keep silent, and over on this day speak up.
- Take time here to dance, and take time there to mourn.
Does your planner remind you simply to be, amid all there is to do? In the busyness of the days and weeks, do you remember to laugh, weep, stay silent or speak? Is there a day for dancing and a day for mourning?
And whose planner is it, I might add? We can look at the days to come with only our best guesses. It is less of a planner and more of a guesser…which still won’t stop me from having a mini-date with my planner because it’s one of my favorite things.
But like most aspects of our lives, if we hold on too tightly, we miss what is important. With our eyes glued to the planner (or the guesser) we cannot also see what will make us laugh, or weep, or leave us speechless or emboldened to speak. The planner will tell you what to do, and Ecclesiastes will remind you to be.
If the upcoming months feel full, how might you remind your future self to take a moment in the mayhem to keep company with Jesus?
*If you are a person who nerds out over planning and planners enough to have a date with your planner, you might also find wisdom from Sarah Hart-Unger.
Lisa Lewton 