Hero video
Columba Chapel - Friday 8 May 2020
 
Video by Dr J Macleod, Miss Ashleigh McDonald

To everything, there is a season

Dr Macleod —

Probably the most common phrase I’ve heard over the last week is: “I’m over it.” So many people, from different backgrounds and in different contexts, have told me, “I’m just over it.”

This week’s reading reminds us that there are different seasons in life (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). Whilst I want to make it clear that bad things are bad, and a deadly disease is not God’s desire for humanity, I do believe that God is giving us the opportunity to learn and grow from our experience of this lockdown. It has been an ‘unprecedented’ season in which we have needed to stop, to be apart, and to do many things differently.

What have you learnt from the lockdown? Have you found out that there are things you’ve taken for granted, like the freedom to be with friends or to play sport? Have you learnt something about yourself? Perhaps you’ve discovered that even when something is hard or unpleasant, you can get through it. Have you learnt something about our shared humanity; that electronic connections are just not the same as face-to-face relationships?

What is one thing that you will do differently after this experience? Maybe you want to remember to be grateful more often. Maybe you want to change something about the way you spend your time, so you are investing in the things that are most important to you.

This has been a very unusual season. It has been hard. It also contains a gift, if we are willing to learn and make some changes.