Seasons

The more time I spend with the Father in fellowship, the more I realise how little I know and how little in control of my life I actually am, the easier and quicker I can say ‘Your will be done’. I also find it saves me a whole load of anxiety, stress and worry!

The longer I live the more I see that life is a series of seasons. I have also realised that some seasons seem to last longer than others. In fact, some seasons seem endless. Thinking of this I also wondered whether it was possible to experience more than one season at a time. Because, again, this is how I can feel – switching between say summer and winter in the course of a day. But what if we get a glimpse of one to remind us that no season is meant to last? What if we were never meant to live permanently in one season?

Can you imagine a life with no challenges? Living permanently in the summer season, full of light and hope? Great you say, but I think we might end up bored this side of heaven. And, the opposite, a life of permanent winter season, with no light and no hope? That would be very hard indeed. So, the One who made us and knows us so well, knows exactly what we need. We need hope enough to know winter will end and light and hope will come. And we need the opposite. In the midst of summer we need to know there are still challenges, still tough times ahead, least we grow complacent.

The Beauty of Every Season

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 reminds us that there are many seasons in our lives: There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

We can look at the list of seasons and wish we never hard to experience some of them. However, if they are there it’s because they are all necessary. In fact, after the seasons are all listed, the word goes on to say, in verse 11: ‘He has made everything beautiful in its time.’ It doesn’t say ‘in His time’ or ‘in our time’, but when the season has accomplished everything it set out to do.

I wish this as easy to accept, but that hasn’t been my experience. I know that I continue to kick against the goads (Acts 26:14), if I continue to be stubborn then I am only going to hurt myself by resisting the truth. I seem to get caught up in thought traps such as ‘if only that thing or that person would think, act and be different’ or ‘if only this thing would work out’. I always seem to want to be some place other than where I am. No wonder the season can seem endless. Because, instead of turning to the One who holds all things in His hands (Colossians 1:17) I try and fix everything myself. I don’t always leave room for the Holy Spirit to move as often as I should.

As hard as it is to accept, I’m not actually perfect! I’m not in control of the season, the thing or the other person. In fact, who is to say that the way I think something should work out is the right way?

The Potter Determines

I love the verses in the bible that talk about the potter and the clay: “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker, those who are nothing but potsherds among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘The potter has no hands’? (Isaiah 45:9). When I try to sort things out my way, or tell God how I think things should work out because obviously I know best, aren’t I effectively being like the clay telling the potter, the Creator, what to do?

Ever tried that? How’d it work out for you? The more time I spend with the Father in fellowship, the more I realise how little I know and how little in control of my life I actually am, the easier and quicker I can say ‘Your will be done’. I also find it saves me a whole load of anxiety, stress and worry.

In this vein I encourage you in the midst of whatever season you are going through, no matter the issue, trust the One who knows you better than you know yourself. The season will not last, and you are not on your own.