“There’s a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” Ecclesiastes 3:1–11
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a prince or a pauper, a performer or a prayer warrior… we all have seasons and chapters in our lives that cause us to ask questions. ‘Why?’ is certainly a big one! This is something that I have wrestled with over many tragic seasons of my own life, and I can definitely say that I’ve had more traumatic chapters than most. Miscarriages, child deaths, abuse, nervous breakdowns, PTSD, a head-on car crash, poisonous spider bites, near-death experiences and more… have given me quite the story. And indeed, quite the testimony!
Over the last 12 months, I have been guesting on podcasts because of my story and the lessons I have learned and can pass on, and this has been not only a privilege but also an opportunity to hear the words coming out of my own mouth. You can’t plan for all questions, so often a response to a question can surprise me as much as it may intrigue an audience.
One such question was, “What’s the most important and pivotal Bible verse for your life, and why?” I hadn’t planned, but I said without too much reflection, “Ecclesiastes 3:1–11, There’s a time for every purpose under heaven,” and when I went on to explain why, I found myself expounding on how this verse, more than any other that I carry in my heart, surrenders the questions and uncertainty of life’s challenges to God’s greater plans and wisdom for timings and seasons.
I actually surprised myself when I said this, but I realised there were deeper places in my spirit that had taken these words and firmly established them securely and profoundly.
When I was 21 and living in Spain, I had a ‘eureka’ epiphany moment with God, and in an awake vision, He showed me the Kingdom, humanity, earth, eternity and the ephemerality (shortness and fleetingness) of life without salvation and the assurance of heaven.
This moment established an unshakeable evangelistic heart in me almost instantly, and I longed to convey this wide perspective of life and purpose to unsaved friends around me. But more than that, I took myself away into a quiet moment of reflection and wrote the words to a song which offloaded some of my burden for seeing people saved and answering their obstructive questions of ‘why’ when considering faith in the light of world and personal adversities.
I went to my Mum and said, “I think I’ve written a song,” and at that point, I didn’t fully know that the words I’d written were mirrored in Ecclesiastes. I’d just written what was in my heart. My Mum, Pastor Brenda, responded to me by saying, “I think I have too!”
So we went to the piano in the sanctuary, as we then lived underneath the church, and we began to explore what we had both been given. It was a miracle. The words and the melody fitted together perfectly, in a way that only Yahweh God could have orchestrated supernaturally.
The song was powerful and anointed with Holy Spirit skin tingles from the get-go, and it left a tangible presence and poignancy in the air. We knew this was a song of purpose and truth.
Over the years, after having recorded the song in the UK at Chapel Lane Studios, the song was lost, recorded over on the analogue spools… but never forgotten. Attempts to recreate the song were unsuccessful and aborted.
But as my life fell into a long journey of loss, trial and tribulation, the verse of Scripture from Ecclesiastes, the song and the truth fell away from my heart, also recorded over with new uncertainties and questions.
To be continued next week on Thursday Thought.
