One of my friends told me that her son and his wife are now living in the same university apartment as dorm parents that I inhabited as a dorm parent so long ago. At that time, in the past, my friend wasn’t even dating. Now her child is married and doing my old job. Wow, times flies. That was such a wakeup call for me. It made me evaluate the course of my life. I think at certain points in our life God reminds us of our history and the part He played in it.
Solomon reviewed the course of a life in Ecclesiastes 3. He broke it down into segments; a time for this and a time for that. All of our lives have come in contact with times of: births and deaths, pain and healing, sadness and happiness, building up and tearing down, grief and joy, taking apart and putting together, following and leading, being loved and being unloved, fear and safety. It’s just part of life. But it’s more than that.
It’s part of God’s ordained plan to get you from where you were to where He wants you to be. I try to narrow my past down to specific events that changed a course in my life. A song got me a scholarship to college. A relationship with a friend got me a job. The death of my parent moved me to another state. And all of those and other events put me where I am now and made me who I am now. And it all goes back to a master plan God had and still has for me.
Most of the time, I was just living my life. I didn’t know at the time how God was taking one event and weaving it into something good for my future. It’s only when I look back that I can say, “Oh, so that’s why that happened.”
This is how Solomon ends this chapter of self-evaluation:
You can’t change what is past.
You don’t know what is in the future
Trust God for the meaning of the things that happened in the past, what is happening now, and what will happen in the future.
Enjoy the life He has given you through all of the times.
Now, Solomon was a little skeptical and melancholy about the whole “purpose of life” thing at this point of his life. But I think that we don’t have to be. I don’t have to be. Yes, there will be a time for all of the good and bad life gives but God will be with me every moment of all my days. He has a plan for me whether I know it or not. And it will be good. It will be perfectly designed just for me. It’s a promise.
“And we understand and have learned that God is taking all the pieces of our life and making them into a complete whole that is good and beneficial to us as we love and trust Him because He has given us His salvation and called us to His kingdom.” Romans 8:28
Time may be flying but enjoy the ride.
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