Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 MSG
1  There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
2  A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap,
3  A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct,
4  A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer,
5  A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part,
6  A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go,
7  A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
8  A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

It was the early nineties when I received a phone call at my place of employment from my mother.  She informed me that a cousin of mine had fallen from scaffolding while working on a barn at the farm and had died.  He was only a year older than me.  I was shocked by the news.  Well I arranged for some time off and headed to Windsor, Ontario from Toronto to attend the funeral.  At the funeral the pastor began the eulogy for my cousin.  His first statement hit me like a ton of bricks, “Life is not fair”.  This is so true, the pastor stated it correctly, bluntly.  You could feel the impact among the mourners from that one statement.

I find today a fundamental mistruth.  It states that we as Christians should always live on mountains.  Always have health and wealth.

This is not so today and it was not so for the disciples and the early Apostles.  Life is not a series of mountain top experiences. It is not one steady momentum.  King David wrote in the most popular Psalm 23 that we do face the shadows of death.  The life of God’s child does go through valleys.  Christ gave us an example when he himself had to go through the wilderness. He did face temptation, but never yielded to those temptations.

As I look back on my life, I can honestly say that I have faced many battles, dry spells in the desert, and also some mountain tops.  The only certainty I knew I had in my life is that Christ was with me no matter what.  The truth that He would never leave me or forsake me.

When we come into this world we come in naked, no guide book except that of the scriptures.  Yes, maybe I could have done better in certain situations.  However, that is now in my life experiences that I can draw upon in the future when I face similar situations.  I know that the God who saw me through all those things is the same God that will be there when I face even more.

Yes, our lives do have different seasons. Seasons of harvest, planting, life and death.  So, I would say that take courage, do not lose faith and hope while going through the different seasons of your journey called ‘life’.  God is for you!