There’s a time for everything

RELAX! Don’t take life’s problems too seriously. They will have their time, but surely they will not have all the time. There’s a time for everything. Things in this life come and go. The only permanent thing and the only thing that can avoid the limits of time and space and that can assume eternal value is when love is lived.

This is what I usually tell people when they come to me confiding their difficulties and disappointments in life. These problems can be in the area of marriage and family, politics, business, etc. “Chill, man!” is what I try to say as nicely as possible. “If you don’t like our present political leaders, they will not be there forever,” or words to that effect.

The Book of Ecclesiastes already warned us about this. “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven—a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build up…” (3,1-3)

God, our creator and father and the source and essence of all that is good, true and beautiful, is always around with his wise and merciful providence. He and his will will prevail, no matter how we mess up with him.

This, of course, does not mean that we do nothing, or that we assume a passive way of life. Not at all! Let’s remember that God wants us always to fruitful and productive. What we have received from him, we also have to give back with some ‘profit’ to boot. That is how God’s love is repaid with our love for him.

And so, what we have to do is simply to focus on our duties and responsibilities, following closely God’s  commandments that in the end are summarized in loving him with all our might and strength and loving our neighbor as Christ himself has loved us. This is really what matters in our life. All the rest are mere seasonings and flavorings.

That love will show us how to deal with our difficulties, problems, failures and sins in this life. And that is simply to be patient and to suffer the way Christ suffered, following the will of his Father for the salvation of all mankind. Our suffering will then assume a redemptive value for our sins and sins of everyone else.

That is why we need to assume a sporting spirit in this life. We should not worry too much about anything. We should just go to God asking for his mercy, his light and strength, and everything would just be fine no matter how we fare and end in this life.

The only thing that matters is that we manage to love the way God loves us as shown to us by Christ and is made possible now through the action of the Holy Spirit. Let’s not waste time lamenting and complaining about certain difficulties and problems we encounter in this life.