Recognizing the Season
It’s fall here, and I am sure you have heard the hype. We are blessed to live in a part of the country where all 4 seasons can be enjoyed. Sometimes only for a week or 2 before running to the next one, but they were here.
Many will share my frustration when the calendar says fall and the weather says winter. Or even more torturous is when the calendar flips to spring, but the weather did not get the memo. We have put in our time, and we deserve some sunshine, am I right?
A few months ago at a memorial service, the speaker said something that really stuck with me. There are seasons for everything under the sun. Some seem ideal and pleasant, some are not desirable. And one of the hardest things in life is recognizing the season you are in.
Dates, times, and months are man made classifications for a general rhythm of nature. We tried to pin down the rhythms of nature in a way that we can understand and function. Some things are constant, like the winter solstice and the rotations of the earth. Some are more fluid and hard to catch, such as the first snow or the arrival of spring. But they come, and they don’t ask anyone’s permission.
The idea of recognizing your season is a little off putting to me. To recognize is passive. To observe something gives no power to me. To recognize is not to choose. It is simply to acknowledge.
But isn’t that the point. We so badly want to be in charge of our lives. We want to have a say. And if that were the case, we would always choose the ideal seasons. We would live in a world of only Octobers. We would choose the seasons to love, to embrace, to laugh, to build and to gather (Ecclesiastes 3).
The world will tell you that you are in charge of your season, of your whole life actually. You don’t have to have hard times, or still times, or times of wanting. You just have to work harder, repeat all the right positive affirmations, hustle longer, and put on a smile. It’s all up to you.
But just as the earth can’t remain in perpetual seasons of harvest (fall times), we cannot live in perpetual seasons of prosperity and hustling.
Psalm 23 says “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.”
This passage does paint a beautiful picture, and I do believe the God meant for it to speak life to our soul. The peace and refreshing that He offers is freely and truly given with no strings. But if we rush past this passage too quickly we might be tempted to misunderstand the promise.
Verse 2 says “He makes me lie down”. What a curious phrase. The word Make paints a picture for me of an unwilling participant, made to do something they do not care to do. From an outsider looking in, we see the beauty and necessity of lying down in a quiet place. But if we are honest with ourselves, we often fight the prompting of the Lord to lie down.
Over the past few years, we have experienced seasons here and there that were not ideal. And looking back I can clearly see that in those moments of discomfort, it was clearly the Lord making me lie down. They were seasons I did not ask for. Seasons I truly fought. Seasons that I begged for deliverance from. My season didn’t seem like a green pasture. Through my eyes, it seemed desolate and dangerous. It felt like winter.
But as I leaned into the season, my winter began to thaw around me. The green began to peak out. Green and vegetation that was choked out by my busyness. By my striving. By the affections I allowed myself for things of this world and discontentment. Did anything change? No. But did my heart change? Absolutely!
The time that started out as trial slowly began to be my refreshing. Because struggle has a way of bringing us to our knees. Of drawing our eyes up. A way of loosening our grip on the things of this world. And that is where we are refreshed.
Just as the tragedy on the cross brought new life. Almost always the things that seem like our undoing are the beginning of our renewing.
So what season does God have you in? Are you reaching and clawing for a more pleasant one? Maybe the best thing we can do is lie down. To lean into whatever it is the Lord is doing around us, in us. To stop trying to manipulate our lives into what seems acceptable and allow God to mold our lives into something beautiful.
Doesn’t that sound very similar to surrender. Surrender is not wallowing. It is not moping and being a victim. But it is humbly and peacefully laying down our agenda picking up our cross. It is to accept where we are with a firm assurance that it is the best thing, that it is making us more like Christ. To surrender our will to the Lord, allows space for Him to work in us. It creates pastures for the renewal of our soul. It reveal strongholds, sin, and idols that have been holding us back from His righteousness.
Just as fall rolls into winter and winter marches into spring, some seasons lead to triumphant ones. And some lead into dark and cold ones. But the one thing that remains is Christ at our side drawing us deeper into relationship with Him. His glory being revealed. And a promise of deliverance into a coming season of worship in the presence of God that will have no end.
