Tuesday, October 12

This too Shall Pass

Posted by Andrea

Read Ecclesiastes 3


As I write this, I am completely overwhelmed with life and all its responsibilities.

We live in a tiny house that seems to shrink daily. I struggle with the volume of stuff we have managed to cram into this place. We purge our surplus often, but it still seems to consume our space. The most recent reason for my frustration comes from school. We have decided, at least for now, to teach our children at home. This requires a few things.

#1 Time
#2 work space
#3 Storage space


And trying to find any of it lately has been difficult and messy. Add to that a certain little boy turning 6, the 120 pounds of fruit in need of processing and a semi-daily devotional to write, I’ve had it. I can’t find the floor in my living room or bedroom. My children now go straight to the laundry pile on the couch to find clean clothes, I’ve completely forgotten about dinner 3 nights in a row…


In the middle of all this mess, I can’t help but think, It’s going to be like this forever.




Ecclesiastes is kind of a depressing book of the Bible. The wisest man who ever lived takes on a defeatist attitude in the book: nothing lasts, nothing matters. King Solomon’s foul attitude can be summed up the same way yours and mine can be explained. David and Bathsheba’s son may have had the corner on the market for wisdom, riches, love and money, but he lost perspective.


He forgot, as we do, that God is the giver of good gifts, and most importantly, has promised to supply all our needs. That includes physical needs and emotional needs. We get lost in a sea of loneliness, doubt and laundry, and before we know it, we feel like we’re being sucked into and endless vortex of the mundane.


Satan is a joy stealer and a lie spinner. It’s going to be like this forever is one of his nastiest concoctions. Spiraling toward desperation, we loose hope. At the bottom of the pit, we loose faith and become unable to love or be loved. “But these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” The devil’s prime objective is to destroy love. Bogging us down in the quicksand of a stagnant season has proven a successful means to his end.


It’s going to be like this forever.


The truth is it’s not. It’s just not. Whether we are in the middle of applesauce season, newlywed bliss, post-baby sleep deprivation, sickness, laundry or even death, it is not going to be like this forever. Things change. It’s what they do. Life moves from great to awful to great again hitting all points in between in no particular order. Life is in a continual state of flux.


To everything there is a season.


It is literally impossible for things to never change. Eventually something will bend, break or move and you will look back on the season you just walked through and wonder why you didn’t notice when it all changed. Maybe, like me, you will be a little embarrassed by the light of day about what seemed so overwhelming in the dark.

Until day breaks, remind yourself that God is in control and, as my dad says after a large meal, this too shall pass.

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