Summer has ended and fall is officially here! At least that’s what the calendar says.
If you are in the south, you know fall doesn’t really ever arrive. Sure, we do our best to make it happen. We buy the pumpkins, drink pumpkin spice lates, wear sweaters when temperatures drop to 80 degrees, and purchase all the fall scents.
We are really good at moving into new seasons because they are set dates that come every year. We have a countdown to summer on the fridge, plant flowers in the spring, and prepare our minds for winter.
If only we had a schedule for our personal seasons.
I’d tell God:
- I’ll be in this grief season for maybe 1 week
- Skip the waiting season altogether
- I can stay in the growth season for a few months
- The exciting, joyful season- Keep me there!
Sometimes we turn the page too soon because we don’t like the season we are in.
Have you been there? I know I have. So many days I wanted to take the express train from the hurt season straight into healing.
You can’t fast forward if you want to be transformed by God.
It’s like when you walk into Hobby Lobby and see Christmas decorations already out in August. What happened to Halloween and Thanksgiving? They just skipped completely over those months!
Then there are some of us who are STUCK in a season that we shouldn’t be in. It’s fall, but we are browsing the summer clearance isle.
You know you are stuck if you keep dwelling on what you should’ve/ could’ve done. Or maybe someone hurt you and you are carrying resentment. Instead of taking steps towards healing, you are stuck in disappointment.
God, what season am I in?
I’ve learned that although you can’t predict how long you will be in a particular season, you can predict that God will show up!
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth. Hosea 6
Growing up, I was always in awe of my Grandma Frances’ travels to different countries. She would show me postcards and pictures of all the places she had been. Her faith was also something I admired. When I would clean her house, I would find scriptures written on her mirror and chalkboard. If no one told me, I would have never guessed that she lost her husband and son in a tragic accident many years ago.
I know I wasn’t there in the middle of her grief season, but the way she lived out her life, you knew God had something to do with her healing.
She could’ve stayed STUCK in the pain, but she chose to lean on God and move forward. She chose to travel the world. She chose to take up polka dancing and make friends. She chose to always be there for her grandkids. She chose to pick up the pieces and live!
Her decision shaped the rest of the family, including me.
When we deal with the hard things that life throws at us and cry out to God in our misery, he makes a way in our hearts for healing.
Whatever season you find yourself in today, I am praying that you can pour your heart out to God.
Don’t let it be a wasted season.
