Optimist Roundtable
By Martha Sykes
It’s that time of year when nature changes so quickly. Last week I had a tree that was full of white blossoms and this week, they are gone! It’s like the song that reminds us “Don’t Blink” as in this life, things can change in an instant.
In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us that there is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens. There always seems to be a guarantee in life that change will happen. If only we could press the pause button, or the replay button, but we can’t do that in life. There is no rewind button so we have to live for the moment and accept changes that come along. We have no choice but to weather the winds of change.
We need to stop and appreciate the things that we enjoy in this life and move on to the next thing. We all know there are seasons in life and there are seasons in nature. Those blossoms on my tree will be back again next year.
As we go through life, we know that sometimes God changes our plans. There are times when God closes one door in our life and opens another one. Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of Billy Graham, once wrote that when she faces a difficult situation or a closed door, she doesn’t ask God, “Why?”. It doesn’t do any good to ask why, she says. Instead, she asks, “what are you trying to teach me through this, Lord?” Certain things we have to trust to faith, and we have to leave them in God’s hands and trust in God’s goodness.
Gods ways are higher than our ways, and God‘s thoughts are higher than our thoughts. If we wait around for God to answer the question “Why?” we can either end up bitter and find ourselves withdrawing from God. But if we change that question and wonder what God wants us to learn from a situation, we will remain open to God’s will and to allow God to work through us. No matter what. God is still working in every circumstance, no matter how strange or painful it may seem at the moment.
Sometimes change can be good, and sometimes not, but one thing we know for sure is that God never changes. He is the same today, yesterday and forever( Hebrews 13:8).
If you read further in to the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon tells us that “ God will make everything beautiful in its time”.
