There Is a Time for Everything

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven... (Ecclesiastes 3:1)."  The Teacher of Ecclesiastes wrote these words while searching for a deep order in the creation, or as we might say today, "The meaning of life."  The Teacher reminds us that in his inscrutable providence, God has appointed beginnings and endings along with limits and transitions in our lives and in our world.  A big part of wisdom is knowing when we run up against these moments.  Our first year back from Haiti came to an end this month.  We are thankful that God made it clear to us that our moment of new beginning and transition arrived last summer.  God helped us to realize that the "the time had come" and gave us the courage to follow the Spirit into new opportunities for kingdom service.  People often ask us what the first year back from Haiti has been like.  Sometimes it feels like people want us to say that this first year has been great.  The reality is that through it all--the ups the downs, the joys and the tears--we can honestly say that God "has been in it," patiently pushing, prodding and stretching us.  All things have happened in God's time.

Zach had a chance to return to Haiti last month for a strategic reflection on Resonate's work over the last few years.  We spent an afternoon discussing this work in Furcy, our family's former hangout in the mountains above Port-au-Prince.  This environment is perfect for farming carrots, lettuce, potatoes and other tubers (see below).  It is also good for growing decorative cut flowers to sell in the big city below.

As the mists float over Haiti's mountains, one gets a sense of the vastness of time and of the limit of human life.  There is a time for everything , and a season for every activity under heaven: A time to be born and time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal..."