I often dress for the wrong season! It’s a bit if a joke with family and friends that I’m always wrongly attired for any weather that presents that day.
I make light of it by saying I’m dressing for the season to come, but I realise by dressing in the wrong clothes that I always get caught short. I don’t actually own any waterproof clothing and often get caught out in the rain with a coat that isn’t appropriate for getting wet. Or I’m overdressed and too hot, caught out by a sunny day and wearing layers, like woolly tights that’s can be awkward to take off mid way through the day.
In our lives, as in nature, we go through and find ourselves in different seasons, have you noticed that?
I am naturally hard wired to be futuristic in my thinking and I realise more and more I need to stop and enjoy the season I’m in whatever it looks like instead of always thinking ahead to what is to come next or yearning after things in the future and missing out on the present.
When it’s a difficult season we find ourselves in it’s only natural isn’t it that we want to get out of it and dream about the good times ahead and the promise of what is to come, but there is much to learn and enjoy in every season and the bible says that for every activity under the sun there is a season.
Ecc 3:1-8
A Time for Everything
1There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
When we recognise the season we are in we can stop the wrestle against it and allow ourselves to just be in it. It’s exhausting when you are fighting daily against the constraints and limitations of where you find yourself if it isn’t where you want to be. As someone who has at times had to literally stop because of an underlying back issue I can get utterly frustrated and upset that I’m missing out on everything that is going on. I can moan and cry about it but funnily enough it doesn’t bring it to an end any quicker.
In fact, I’d say I’ve had seasons with God where I have been like a petulant child, all sulky, cross and confused. I say to God “But I just want to do/want this one thing and I want to do it/have it now”. Do you relate?
Oh how thankful am I that God knows better than me and He knows the beginning from the end of my life and what is the very best for me at any one time. If I had the things I yearn for/do the thing I feel I’m called to before I’m actually ready for it I wouldn’t be able to pull it off because I wouldnt be properly prepared. It’s like the branches on the trees that look healthy being cut back because they would not be able to hold the fruit of what is to grow on them. So cut back they are in preparation.
When we do allow ourselves to stop the wrestling we realise that we can learn so much about ourselves, what we build our lives on and where we put our trust as we travel through the different seasons of our life and let’s face it nothing reveals your character more than when the rubber really hits the road and you find yourself in a crisis or an extended period of suffering, delay or illness for instance.
We know life is not a walk in the park and Jesus never promised it would be problem free. But if we reframe how we see our different seasons and be less stubborn we will probably go through them quicker as we allow God to move in them and in us without being so tantrumy.
When we surrender to what God has for us in any season we can squeeze out all the goodness that is wrapped up and hidden deep within it. The lessons learnt in a wilderness season can be utterly life changing as we allow God to strip us back and work in our hearts. Or maybe you’ve literally, like me, felt hard pruned and God has asked you to lay things down that you love and it seems so utterly confusing. One of the take aways for me from the pruning season has been that it’s never for punishment but for purpose and fruit to come.
When we are obedient to the things God is asking us to do there will always be fruit and even when it seems confusing there is always a reason for it. Often times we can’t see in the moment the reason but this is where our trust in the one who does comes in.
Sometimes the fruit takes some time to appear, again like in the natural but it is always worth the wait. It’s often when we look back over our lives we can track the seasons and in hindsight see the why and how of the things we’ve laid down or gone through and we can really see the fruit over time.
So why not pause and ask God about the season you’re in with these questions…
What season are you currently in?
What are you learning there?
Are there any areas of your life that God is pruning right now?
What fruit do you picture coming from this season?
What have been the most fruitful seasons of your life to date?
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