There is a time

Since my legs haven’t quite got back to normal from running (thanks for asking), I went out on the bike today. Somewhat miraculously I felt good as I set off and was thinking I might be fitter than I thought. I got into a nice rhythm. I was feeling good. There weren’t so many people out either (so they couldn’t slow me down). But I knew there was hard work ahead. Turns out it’s pretty much all uphill from Crawley to East Grinstead along the Worth Way! But I was ready! Sometimes life is like that: it all feels good and we feel in control and ready to take it on. But on a bike on the Worth Way there are times when it’s really hard: it’s called uphill. Or it’s called the wind! And it was when I got to East Grinstead and turned around that I worked it out. There wasn’t much wind at all, but what little there was now against me. That meant hard work. That meant effort. That meant I couldn’t go at the same pace. I was going well on the outward journey, but the homeward journey would be more challenging. It’s amazing how the slightest of breezes can make cycling so much harder. It got me thinking: when I’m on the bike I know some things will make it easier (downhill and a following wind, and some things will make it harder: uphill and a headwind). Then I thought: it’s pretty similar in life: some things make it harder and some things make it easier. Which got me thinking about seasons: there are seasons in life. Some are easy and we feel good. But some are hard, difficult and challenging. We (by that I mean everyone) are in a very challenging season right now. Perhaps the only part of Ecclesiastes we know has something to say about seasons. It’s Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 v 1 - 8. It starts: “There is a time for everything…” Scholars have tried to work out how the “poem” is organised, and have come to the conclusion that the way the statements are arranged randomly. That’s to make the point that life is like that: it often seems random - there is no rhyme or reason to the way things happen. That remind you of any time? A couple of verses later (v11) the writer says that God places eternity in the human heart. Even through the randomness of life, God is in our hearts! Which means that even in this very difficult and “random” season, God is in your heart. Now that’s worth thinking about!