The Solomon Project Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

For an introduction to this blog please see the earlier entries. We are beginning chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes. It is "interesting?" that this entry this week is on time when we had to change our clocks to Daylight Savings Time this weekend. Archibald Hart Professor Emeritus of the Psychology Department of Fuller Theological Seminary relates the story of having a full body scan and finding that he had to have heart surgery. He ended up in the very bed in the same hospital where his good friend Louis Smedes had just died from falling off of a ladder at his home. Dr. Hart makes the observation that we are quick to attribute good things to God but not so easily the less fortunate events of life.

This particular poem has made its way in the English language and culture and permeates how we view and experience time. The phrase we use "there is a time and place for everything." echos this poem. It's short staccato style is almost like a clock ticking. Verse one says:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: (Ecc 3:1 NIV) This opening line orients us to the content of the poem. There is a time and place for everything and as we will see these events are in the hand of God according to the author. The following contrasts are polar opposites and are a figure of speech called a merism. The author uses this technique as an economy of language. The author could not begin to name all the events in one's life that have their appointed times. Thus by pairing opposites he means to include everything in between as well.

Verse three may cause the most questions: a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, (Ecc 3:3 NIV) Killing and healing do not appear to be opposites but the term for kill may be a hyperbole meaning that it may refer to fatal or near fatal wounding. The polarity would then make sense.

Verse five has caused questions also: a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, (Ecc 3:5 NIV) This probably refers to rendering a field unproductive by scattering stones on it. This would fit with the larger parallel structure of the poem. The author talks about planting and reaping in verse 2b. Gathering the stones would have to do with making the field productive. This fits into the concept of the book of carrying out your tasks with enjoyment.

Verse six reads: a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, (Ecc 3:6 NIV) The concept of throwing away probably is not a good translation. This word has to do with giving up something for lost. He certainly is thinking of losing your car keys or your wallet. But certainly there are far more momentous losses. Loss of a marriage, loss of a relationship, loss of a loved one. There is a time for giving these things up as lost.

It is not insignificant that the following verse talks of tearing. This is a metonymy where one thing stands for another. The tearing is the physical act that is expressing grief an emotion of sorrow. Verse six expresses the concept of loss. Verse seven the expression of loss.

People who suffer from addiction and compulsivity have a problem with time. It slips through their fingers. Time is wasted on compulsive behavior. Much of addiction has to do with avoiding facing the concepts discussed in these verses. We don't want to face loss and mourning, being productive, and being silent and speaking. It seems that addicts never can get this right. They have a hard time knowing when to speak up and be assertive and when to keep silent and many times to avoid harming others with angry words.

Many of us cannot understand why God allows things to happen in their time. I do not understand why God wove my life the way he did. I thought about it this way as I meditated on writing this. We think of God as weaving the tapestries of our lives. My life is more like those rugs that can be made from scraps of cloth. Made with pieces of cast-away material--not good for anything else. I thought my life was at its end. That is when it truly began.

In the first eight verses here God is strangely left out. The author does not rush to include a divine element in destiny. He crafts his work very deftly. He knows when that should be interjected. Remember we are dealing with the fleeting nature of wind. Emptiness and the futility of life "under the sun." He wants to have us "sit" in it for the moment. We may not want to do that. Many of us think that waiting and patience are overrated. There are many things that happen not just certain times but that happen at all that make us think that if this is God's idea of orchestrating life he is an evil augur. We live in a sinful world. Solomon is saying here that things happen. From a human perspective they do not make sense. The question why is asked of me more than almost any other single question. I do not have the answer to the problem of evil. These happenings cover things from a child's pet dying to longstanding chronic childhood sexual abuse. As John Townsend says, "Our capacity to sin creatively is limited only by our depravity."

Those of you who struggle with addiction may wonder when the time will come when you will not struggle with addiction. You want compulsivity to be gone from your life. If you have done or are in the midst of doing step work you may feel that you have come to a standstill. Of course we know that recovery is like swimming upstream in a fast moving current. If you don't keep paddling you will be carried down stream. But perhaps you can think of it this way. Can you get to shore to be able to stand on solid footing. If you have stopped in recovery and maintaining sobriety is difficult rather than stagnating how about consolidating? Get a firm footing. Look at where you're at in the steps and attempt to move ahead again. Continuing in this process will become cyclical--a danger in addiction recovery. Get some help. Talk to your sponsor or perhaps a new sponsor could help. During this consolidation phase "think" differently but don't "think" that "thinking" is the cure. Action--different positive--action is the way of recovery. This may mean doing a Step four or doing it in that truly searching manner. Remember the solid footing is step three.

Some of you reading this may have happened upon this site quite by accident. and have no idea what this is about. It is about addiction recovery and sobriety. It is about accepting life on its terms. As this passage says there is a time and place for everything. If you need some resources visit my website at http://www.thesouldoctor.org/

Our time is up for this week so until next week: Keep coming back it works if you work it and you're worth it.