2 September 2022

Chaplain's Corner

Middle School
Chaplain's Corner
Chaplain's Corner
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The 1960s pop hit ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ by The Byrds draws its lyrics from the Book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3:

‘For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.’

These observations on life invite listener or reader to reflect on the best ways to make good use of our time, as for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven.

As we start a new school term, a new season, may it be one where with God’s help we are able to continue helpful routines and practices but that we are also able to find the time to experience new things and to find purpose in what we are attempting each day.

Despite these being words that were written thousands of years ago they invite us all in 2022 to do more than just try and manage competing demands on our time, and to make the choice when necessary to just ‘let go and let God’ work out the things that we can influence or are just out of our control.

So, as we start a new and exciting term, may a prayer attributed to American University Lecturer Reinhold Niebuhr help shape our decision making this day, week and term.

Let us pray.

God, give us the grace to accept the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and your wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Help us to live one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did, this sometimes troublesome world as it is, not as we would have it, trusting that you will make all things right, If we surrender to your will, so that we may be reasonably happy in this life, and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen.

Rev. Scott Bramley
Middle School Chaplain

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