There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:  Ecclesiastes 3:1  NIV

Whenever I read Ecclesiastes 3 I start humming “Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)”, a song written by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s, which the Byrds scored a HUGE 1965 hit with.¹ The lyrics, except for the title which is repeated throughout the song and the final two lines, are adapted word-for-word from the English King James Version of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8.² In the U.S., the song holds distinction as the number one hit with the oldest lyrics.³ I sometimes Joke that Seeger got more people to memorize scripture than any pastor in history. However, you remember it, I am sure at some point you have contemplated the questions it raises.

Ecclesiastes 3 contains philosophical speeches by a character called ‘Qoheleth’ (“the Teacher”; Koheleth or Kohelet), composed probably between the fifth and second centuries BC. Peshitta, Targum, and Talmud attribute the authorship of the book to King Solomon.⁴

Although I am sure you have hummed the tune, too many people go through life without ever stopping to “really” ponder a very simple question, “what connection do you have to Jesus and His kingdom and what should that mean to you in this life?” That is the question the wise Kohelet brings to their audience and is as relevant 2500 years later, today – as it was the day it was penned.

Mircea Eliade was a Romanian philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago who became one of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and interpreter of religious experience, he established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day.⁵ He helped us recognize the “myth of eternal return” in the ancient world. The idea that every culture has had some kind of circle of life (as Disney later adopted it). From the Aztecs 27,000 year cycle,⁶ to the Hebraic 50 years of Jubilee year, including every seven years a sabbatical year, most cultures have recognized some cycle of life.⁷ In our culture New Years is a day of rethinking the past and taking on a resolution to do better in the coming year. In some way shape or form, I think everyone has considered the notion.

As I reflect on different life cycles I am reminded that even though the Hebraic calendar includes yearly festivals, they are different than the other cycles of the world because they are not merely repetitions of the primordial event. In Hebrew thought, the world is actually going somewhere, and we are all a distinct part of that story. We are all part of a return to Eden. But the past is finished and luckily for many of us, a recreated heaven and earth will bring the perfect union of Jesus in partnership with our true identity in Him that we have only imagined in fairy tale like songs. But to many who have stopped and considered the mastery of the entire narrative to us we have arrived and become firmly fixed on the notion that the sentiment is worth our lives.

Jon Gibson has uncovered something beautifully for us. As we reflect, remember, resolve and contemplate things more significant in this life, I am betting that we have seen seasons and have hopefully travelled to a better place of life through these journeys. But perhaps the best is yet to come for you.

The word the Qohelet uses in Hebrew for time is zĕmān. In Hebrew the word doesn’t denote an indeterminate sequence but rather an appointed moment. ⁸ An appointed moment of birth—and death.  An appointed moment to laugh—and cry.  To kill—and heal.  To sow—and reap.  All appointed.⁹ Perhaps there is something more going on in this life. Maybe there is a sense of orchestration in the ordinary that has led us to beautiful places even in the messiness or busyness of our modern life cycles. Most of us wouldn’t choose the courses of our past but we also wouldn’t choose to remove them from our lives. That seems to be an ontological fact of existence that we have in common. We are on a sentient journey.

I pray that in the pages of this masterful piece that you will find peace, comfort, and a sense of direction in the fact that somehow God is working out His plan within the pages of your life journey.  Behind it all is His invisible hand. That’s comforting. Perhaps in the tears and fears, joy and grief, success and failure, helping and hurting; we will understand the immense love that Jon has so beautifully given us through his connections to Jesus. I pray that on this journey you may be captivated by these seasons and find a sense of peace but also action.

 “The more beauty of God you capture today in your heart today, the greater the beauty you will find in your next season.”  Don’t cast your seasons to the wind until you have grabbed hold of its beauty and set it in your heart for eternity.¹⁰

This article is intended to be a catalyst to Jon Gibson’s book “HERE AND NOW” to be released in 2026.

1. “Turn! Turn! Turn! – Byrds Version”. Allmusic. ↩︎
2. “King Solomon’s Writings”. United Church of God: An International Association ↩︎
3. Hasson, Nir (2009-11-08). “Pete Seeger’s role in ending Israeli house demolitions”. Haaretz. ↩︎
4. Jastrow, Morris; Margoliouth, David Samuel (1901–1906). “Ecclesiastes, Book of”. In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls. ↩︎
5. Rennie, Bryan (January 2001). Changing Religious Worlds: The Meaning and End of Mircea Eliade. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-4729-1. ↩︎
6. Hill Boone, Elizabeth (2016). Ciclos de tiempo y significado en los libros mexicanos del destino [Cycles of time and meaning in the Mexican books of destiny]. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica. ISBN 9786071635020. ↩︎
7. B. Zuckermann, A Treatise on the Sabbatical Cycle and the Jubilee, trans. A. Löwy. New York: Hermon Press, 1974. ↩︎
8. Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 94a ↩︎
9. https://brianzahnd.com/2018/01/twenty-two-days/ ↩︎
10.  “Robert Wiedeman Barrett (Pen) Browning (1849–1912)”. Armstrong Browning Library and Museum, Baylor University. ↩︎