Purpose, Time and Season.

 Purpose, Time and Season.

 

Ecclesiastes 3:1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:

 

I know it the context of the Church the word season has become way over used in the last 10 years.  There was a preacher, about 5 years ago, that anytime he would get up to preach my children would make it a game to count how many times he would use the word season during his sermon.  

Having grown up farming seasons had a little different meaning for me.  Knowing the season and the proper time with in the season for doing things was very important for it dictated our income.  As the verse above states to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose.  

For a moment I want to look at this in reverse order.  Purpose, Time and Season. Purpose is what we are to be doing.  Time is exact when that purpose is to come into being and season is marking of the beginning and the end of everything regarding purpose. 

To help explain what I just said let us take the spring season for me back on the farm.  The main purpose, or the main thing we wanted to have accomplished by the end of spring, was to have the crops planted.  For this to happen there were other purpose that we had that had to be done in the right times to get to the main purpose.  The ground had to be made ready to plant and this involved several different activities that all had to be done in and at the right time.  For us this is, approximately, how things progressed.  First the ground needed to be thawed and then dry enough for us to work.  We then had to make sure that the equipment we needed was ready and in the right location to start its intended purpose.  Next the proper attachment was added to the tractor being used and then put into the field.  

The order would go as something like this, plowing, disking, harrowing and rolling and then planting.  We only ever had at most 2 tractors of our own and sometimes would borrow my grandfather’s tractor to be able to use 3 tractors at any one time.  This means that we would need to use 1 tractor for multiple jobs and this required changing of attachments throughout to accomplish the next purpose. As you see there was a lot of work involved and different purposes that had to be done at correct, and different, times with in the season to accomplish the main goal, or purpose, of having the crops planted.  

For those who don’t really know me or about this aspect of my life let me make one thing clear, I am not a farmer.  Being a farmer, to me, is more than working on a farm.  It takes a lot of knowledge and understanding and a whole lot of passion for it to be a farmer.  I am lacking in all three especially the passion part when it comes to farming.  I learned, and still remember some, things but not enough to ever be successful or to really know how to do it or when to do it correctly.  So, how did I help build a successful produce business from the age of 10-18?  I just did what my Dad told me to do and when he told me to do it.  While not totally ignorant, I did understand what season we were in, and after I was trained, how to do the different tasks, there was a lot I didn’t know.  While I did come to understand the order for each purpose, I didn’t know the precise start and end of seasons (our seasons), and I didn’t know the exact best times for each purpose to start. Honestly this never bothered nor concerned me because I had my Dad and he always knew and would tell me.  

In life I have come to learn, the hard way, that I need to do the same thing.  I need to listen to my heavenly Father to tell me the purposes, the time for each purpose and the start and end of each season that those times and purposes fall in to.