A/N: I started writing this blog to just be a sermon this month, but have since decided I liked it enough, that I wanted to share it with the rest of my world; so here it is.
9/4/16
Our lives are filled with seasons. Theses seasons are like chapters to a book, and the book that is being written is your life. These chapters or seasons in your life can include things like childhood/teen, adulthood, single life, marriage, being a parent, being a child, grandparent, friend, student, athlete, a job, missionary, and so many other things. In all honesty, anything you’re going through, whether it’s a trial, a temporary piece of life, or just your everyday life can be classified as a season of your life, and can be written as a chapter in your book of life.
In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, it talks about “for everything there is a season.” There is a season to be born and die, to laugh and to cry, to plant and to pluck up, to kill and to heal, to break down and to build up, to mourn and to rejoice and so much more.
Everything we do in life has a beginning and an end; life itself included. In Deuteronomy 1:6, Moses is talking to Israel about leaving Horeb and says, “The Lord our God said to us in Herob, ‘you have stayed long enough on this mountain.” It made me think about how we aren’t meant to stay in the same season of life forever. Sometimes a season of life can be something that you know will eventually come to an end, like the World Race for me. It has a set deadline, 11 months, and then you move on. Sometimes though a season of life can go on for an unknown amount of time, for example a job, you could be in the same job for one year, five years or even twenty years you just don’t always know.
What seasons of life are you living in right now? Are there any of them coming to an end? Any that you hear God saying you need to leave behind you? Are you looking towards that next season, ready for what God has in store for you?
Ending a season of life can be hard, but it’s healthy. It’s necessary. Sometimes in life we choose when we end a season; for example, we can choose when to leave a job; but there are also other times in our life when God chooses to end a season of life for us, and tells us much like he did Moses and Israel that you’ve been in this season long enough, and now it’s time to move on. Seasons of life much like Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer aren’t meant to last forever, but only be a part of your life for a little while. Are you ready for when God calls you to end a season of life that you are living right now?
My sister Jessica is learning what it’s like to leave a season of life and start a new one right now. She just recently moved out and into her own apartment. In doing so she’s leaving the season of being the child, of being dependent on others to provide, to pay the bills to make sure everything is taken care of; she’s leaving that season and entering a season of independence, of learning how to take care of herself, providing for herself, paying her own bills, deciding every Sunday whether she wants to attend church or not, making sure she attends her classes in college on her own and so much more. She’s leaving the comfort of dependency, of that season of life, and moving into a new season of life of independence.
Changing seasons, moving from one to another, isn’t always easy. Jessica will make mistakes, she’ll miss that dependency at times, but in the end she’ll make it, she’ll learn, she’ll grow, and this season will make her stronger than before; because in the end she’ll learn to trust in God and depend on him, and thus learning independence within dependency.
Right now in my own life, I’m slowly closing out one season of my life, and about to start another. The season of life I’m ending is known as the World Race, my friends and I have been on it for 9 months now and in November we will be heading home and starting new seasons of life. I know this season is ending, it’s one that has had an end date from the get-go, but that doesn’t make it any less scary to end or any easier to end. The only difference between knowing in advance and having an unexpected season end is that you have more time to prepare for the end and for the beginning of the next. However, something I’ve learned this year is that you don’t have to know everything about what’s next and you don’t always have to understand everything that God has in store for you. In Proverbs 3:5-6 it says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your path.” Trust God in what he has in store for you; you don’t need to know everything about what’s next, because he’s got it figured out for you already and he knows what you need and what’s best for you. Don’t feel discouraged if you don’t have it all figured it out as you move from one season to the next; don’t feel discouraged if God calls you to the end of a season in your life before you think you’re ready to end it…TRUST Him, he’s got a plan and his plan is way better than your plan, just acknowledge Him and his ways and everything will be okay.
Are you in the process of going through a season change? Is God asking you to step down from one season and start another? Are you a parent whose child is older and moving out and on the own in the world, there for the season of what parenting looks like is changing? Are you a child moving out from their parent’s house and onto their own, moving from that life of dependency to independence? Are you finishing up high school and moving on to university, going from single life to dating, to engaged, to marriage; from being childless to having a child? All these seasons of life can be scary to move on from, but you know what? It’s okay. God has a plan, and that plan for you involves the changing of seasons; just like Winter changes to Spring, and Spring changes to Summer and so forth; Seasons change, you move from one chapter of life to the next and that’s okay.
I want to encourage you today; Be present one-hundred percent in the here and now! This season will be over soon enough, and neither you or God wants you to miss out on it. If you’re going through a season of trial, remember a season is just that a season, it’s not forever. God has great plans for you. Each chapter in your book of life is written up on the different seasons of life God has given you. Choose today how you will use your life, the season you’re in; what will this chapter of your book say. How are you using this season of your life for God? No matter where you are at in life, what season you are in, whether you’re coming to the end of one, or at the beginning of one or somewhere in the middle; God is there, always there, and he’s got a plan for this season of life that you’re in; just trust Him.
