Episode 134 - In Due Season

The Book of Sirach, which is also known as Ben Sira or Ecclesiasticus, is not found in the Protestant Bible.  It is one of seven books that shares this dubious distinction.  Written sometime between 196 and 177 BCE by Yeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira, a Hellenistic Jewish scribe, the Book of Sirach is a compilation of wise sayings, much like the Book of Proverbs, and can be found in the Roman Catholic Bible, the Eastern Orthodox Bible, the Oriental Orthodox Bible, and Assyrian Church of the East Bible.  Most denominations consider it a part of the Apocrypha.  Despite all this, a reading of The Book of Sirach can yield a wealth of insight.  Its single author had a plethora of astute observations on society and his fellow man.  Simply put, he offers good advice.  It is his final words, dear listeners, that I would like to focus on.  In Chapter 51, verse 30, he concludes the book by sharing the following: "Work at your tasks in due season, and in his own time God will give you your reward."  Put another way, do what you need to do today, and when God is ready, he will give you what you deserve.  As I studied this verse in the wee morning hours before the sun had come up, it occurred to me that this is the frame of mind many of us likely need to ward off anxiety and maybe even depression.  It does not take a sage to see that the world is an anxious place with individuals flitting from place to place, doing their very best to remain distracted.  Not to be distracted would mean having to lock eyes with impossible questions: What is the meaning of my life?  Why am I here?  What happens when I am not?  What is time but a thief?  What is the value of those cherished seasons in my life next to eternity?  Where is my life going?  What do I do with all the love that I have?  What do I do with all the love I was given?  Oftentimes, even coming up with the words for the question is a challenge, but that in and of itself points to the sheer enormity of the existential crises we all face.  It begins with a heavy feeling in the gut.  Sometimes, it remains a heavy feeling in the gut, and the words remain scarce or nonexistent.  We simply feel the heaviness of it all.  At fifty-one years old, I am feeling the weight.  My memories compete with my visions of what the future might hold, leaving me to wrestle with the disbelief that I have accumulated so many  years and that it is likely that those years, unless I live into my hundreds, constitute the bulk of my life.  I no longer live in theory.  Time and age are real.  Is this the mark of middle age?  Indeed, is this the beginning of wisdom?  Time is for none of us to control.  Celebrities of all types try to tell us otherwise with the surgeries they undergo and the lifestyles they lead or, at least, pretend to lead.  The lie is all around us.  You can beat time.  You can circumnavigate its effects.  But this is simply false.  We are all caught up in its momentum.  That is why time marches.  Time marches because soldiers march, and good soldiers are singular in mind and aim.  But Chapter 51, verse 30 gives us perspective.  In each season, we have a job.  We merely have to do it.  Go to school.  Start a family.  Raise children.  See them off.  Work at a career.  Love your spouse.  Be a good neighbor.  The clock will tick, and there is nothing we can do about it.  But God stands outside of time, which makes the phrase "in his own time" all the more mysterious.  The human mind cannot explain it.  The human heart cannot fathom it.  We, the poor banished children of Eve, can only experience it with serenity, we hope, accepting the fact that we do not have access to all the answers we seek.  The questions will come.  Pray, let us only be distracted by the work set before us now.