“To everything there is a season and a time . . .”
-Ecclesiastes 3
Fall is here, and it’s one of my favorite seasons. As summer comes to a close, the days get a little shorter. The leaves change to vibrant colors of red, orange, and gold. The temperature cools down considerably. I so enjoy the cool crisp mornings and evenings and the warmth of the sun in the afternoons.
When the seasons of nature change, we witness the natural cycle of ending and beginning. I like to think of fall as nature getting rid of the old so it can prepare to embrace the new.
As we enjoy the newness of this Fall season and the beautiful changes all around us, it is a perfect time to reflect on the fact that just like there are changing seasons in nature that get rid of the old and prepare itself to embrace the new, that there are also different seasons in our lives that bring change.
We don’t always live the same way.
We don’t always do the same things.
Seasons change.
Life Shifts.
One day you can describe yourself and your life one way, and the next day that description can totally change. Sometimes those shifts are welcomed and celebrated. Other times those shifts are regarded with fear and anxiety.
Either way, life has seasons — some of which we are ready for and some we simply don’t see coming or don’t think suitable for who we think we are or what we think our life should look like.
Maybe your season in life has shifted unexpectedly.
You were happy. Now you feel frustrated and unfulfilled.
Healthy. Now ill.
Married. Now divorced.
Calm. Now stressed.
Comfortable. Now stretched.
The promotion you got is overwhelming.
Parenting feels stressful and impossible at times.
Your new relationship or your new marriage is not as straightforward or simple as you thought it would be.
Or your marriage is struggling right now.
You were content but now God has led you to a place where dependence on Him means discomfort or uncertainty and forces you to grow in your faith.
The important thing is that each season makes a change in the way we live, and it requires us to adjust significantly, which isn’t so easy to do in a different season. Yet, it is important that we recognize and understand the different seasons in our lives or we may risk drawing the wrong conclusions about what is happening in our lives, or the reasons for it.
I am in a new season of my life and in my career, which has been exciting, scary, and challenging, and has required significant inner strength, self-exploration, big adjustments in time, energy, and focus, and much surrender, and dependence on God. In frustration and confusion in the midst of change and adjustment, I recently have taken some time to reflect upon this new season of life I am encountering, and through much prayer, self-exploration, and seeking wise counsel, I have realized two important truths that have offered me hope, comfort, and freedom to fully embrace and begin to find acceptance, peace, and even joy in this new season.
I wanted to share them with you, so that they may offer you the same in your new season.
The first truth I have realized is that in every new season of life that you encounter, God is at work in it, and He is loving you in it in His most trustworthy way.
He is planning each season of your life with His infinite wisdom and for His divine purpose. God has a plan and a purpose to make your life beautiful. God has us in a process. We can’t see the scope of God’s work from beginning to end. We are short sighted. Not all shifts in seasons are negative. Some simply push us into places that require a major adjustment in our hearts, mind or will.
We can be confident that God is working things out for our good no matter how things are going in our external world. When we understand that, we can understand that we are not going to have easy seasons all the time.
Whether we see fruit in our current season or not, God is still at work, preparing something good for us. And when we face the changes in each season of life, God will make us stronger in the broken places, if we turn to Him and ask, believing that He will show up for us.
Are you embracing what He is doing in this season? Have you asked Him what He is doing and what He wants you to know about it? How He is loving you in it?
We can trust His timing. Because He is trustworthy, and we can be sure that He is loving us in each season though it may be in a new and different way than the season before.
The second truth I have realized is that in every season of life, despite the discomfort, the fear, the sadness, the challenge, that there is always some beauty.
Each season in nature comes with its own individual environment, but each shares something in common. Each carries a unique, sometimes hidden beauty about it. Do you ever notice that despite of the harshness, or the gloominess of certain seasons, they always make the environment eye catching? Each season in nature has its own beauty, and so do the seasons of our lives.
Like in nature, every season and time of our life is part of the beautiful circle of life. This fall season is one of the most beautiful, and unique of the four seasons because of the changing of the leaves in trees. The leaves changes from green to many color shades, such as orange, yellow, and red, and sometimes a color mixed between them. It signifies the ending of summer, and the soon to come winter seasons. This fall, stop to see the beauty of God in the brilliant colors or in a fallen leaf. See it in the clear blue skies and the golden harvest sunsets. Feel it in the cool, crisp breeze.
In the seasons of our lives, there too, is always beauty to see. There are the moments when God makes Himself known, and His grace shows up in very real and personal ways. There are the moments when you see a ray of light and some bit of truth hits you in your center that changes your perspective. There are the moments when you release something that has been burdening you or keeping you stuck for so long. There are the times when in the middle of pain and struggle, you are forced to take a look at what’s really most important to you. And the times when God unveils the beauty of new gifts from His heart that let you know He sees you.
What season are you in? What are you afraid to let go of? What new things are you embracing with joy? What beauty, what gifts are available to you in this season that you may not be seeing because you’re resisting the season? Or because you’re believing lies about God? Those lies that tell you that He is not For You. That He is not trustworthy. That He is not loving you.
Are you finding the beauty in this season of your life?
What beauty can you see?
What does the beauty speak to you about this season?
What does the beauty speak to you about God’s nature and how He’s loving you?
Every season has its beauty. In this season of your life, allow yourself to let go of what has passed without regret. Anticipate with joy and hope what is to come. Open to it. Allow it. Look for it. Savor its goodness. Embrace the goodness of God and receive His love, beauty, and His blessings
In Abundance.
Full Measure.
Running Out All Over.