“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…”
Ecclesiastes 3
I am not big on scripture memorization. However, I once had
my youngest daughter memorize the above line from Ecclesiastes which I consider
one of the greatest bits of wisdom ever. She had this rather annoying habit of
butting into adult conversations. I wanted her to know her thoughts were
valuable, but that there was an appropriate time and place for them
What an ancient idea, right? However, having been frequently
guilty of the same crime against my elders, I had learned the hard way there’s
a time to speak and a time to be silent. As you can tell that particular bit of
knowledge fled from me as I got older, leading to my oft-repeated lament, “It
seemed like a good idea at the time.”
My timing has not always been the best. I gave up a military
career to go into the ministry. It was a good idea, but the time and place were
all wrong. Disaster ensued. I couldn’t have timed my exit from active ministry
to nursing at a more opportune time. I had a very wonderful time as a
nurse—maybe too good. It took a nonfunctional left leg and subsequent back
surgery to persuade me to move on to writing full-time. Writing is a true
godsend.
Launching into publishing seemed like a good idea at the
time. I suppose time will tell how good that idea turns out to be. The
truth is we seldom know in the moment what the end will be. We have only faith
in our values and our prayers to go on.
Winston Churchill, who shouldered the entire blame for
Gallipoli was cast into political outer darkness for his idea. Nevertheless,
his time came again. Standing almost alone in his own cabinet, he refused to
negotiate a peace offered by Hitler after the fall of France. He left to us
this bit of wisdom.
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the
courage to continue that counts.”
Keep on keeping on.
Maranatha
No comments:
Post a Comment