Time for Everything

Around here on the farm nothing happens in a hurry.  Everything happens slowly.  The hay which sustains the cows through the winter takes months to grow and bale.  It takes nine months for a cow to birth a calf.  It takes another two years before the newborn calf becomes a calf producer. The pecan trees that dump a crop of nuts on the ground in October are first seen setting midst the early Spring foliage.  And as anyone who has ever planted anything knows, no seed brings a harvest in the morning.  Everything takes time.  There is nothing which can be done to hurry anything.  As the Word says, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..."  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

 

There are lessons to be learned by watching what is around us.  The problem is that we live our lives as if every moment is on the interstate.  Slow is not our favorite word.  When someone in front of us is talking and having trouble collecting their thoughts or saying what is obvious, we want to hurry them.  We try to help them finish.  We do not always have time to do the listening required in the moment.  There is something about us that becomes very impatient with those who do not operate at the rapid pace of our living.  Even in those moments when an automobile accident occurs causing our plans to be put on hold for a brief time, we moan and groan instead of offering prayers of concern for someone who is in obvious trouble.

 

We sometimes forget that life is lived one day at a time.  No, life is lived one minute at a time.  No, life is lived one second at a time.  Time is not a thing of great concern to God, only to us.  He has created us in an orderly planned world where everything has its season and its place.  We only add to the stress of our own journey through this life by bucking against the divine program.  Slowing down and paying attention to the present moment and the people in it may be something we have to learn to do, but it is worth the effort.