This Sunday I heard a sermon I have heard a hundred times. It started out with that phrase we all like to quote to make us feel better when life throws us curveballs;
"For everything there is a season..."
{Ecclesiastes. 3:1-9}
Other than some fluffy reassurance, I'd never made any real connection to this message. Yes, there are 'seasons of life.' Don't I know it. Seasons that hurt, seasons that are exciting, seasons that are trying. Seasons, just like the ones I know so well from living in New England for so long, that change every so often. But nevertheless, they shift and change. There is one and then inevitably after, there is another. But on Sunday, I learned this message in a different way than that fluff reassurance I'd heard before.
The speaker of this message urged us to embrace our season. Whether it is frustrating, trying, terrifying, exciting, or none of those things; it is the season you are in. Repelling it, no matter how difficult it might be, is not how to go into and live in your season of life in a healthy way at all.
I wanted to share the notes {and some commentary} that I took for this in hopes it can be useful in some way to someone else.
1. Acknowledge seasons.
Ask yourself, what are the features of my life right now? What am I learning? What am I going through? What is God been trying to teach me? You have to first identify your season to be able to do the work that it and God requires of you.
2. Know yourself.
James 1:23-25 - This is one of my favorite verses because it is so applicable in so many situations. It's almost like God includes this verse in the Bible as a "duh-verse." It's hard to read it and not feel a little silly. We need to know ourselves so that we can find out what we need to learn. This is so that we may improve on that self-discipline area of life we all know and {hate to} love. Do you have a healthy view of yourself, of what you actually need to learn. Are you receptive to what God can and will show you?
This requires balance and humility.
So that ultimately, we can move on to maturity.
3. Find your season.
Proverbs 4:23 - Check your heart. Look at your present. Look at your daily life. What has God or others been speaking into your life? Do you notice something continuously coming up in your life that you keep pushing to the side? What are you in the middle of now? What are changes happening in your life? What do you need more of? What are you procrastinating?
4. Get the right equipment.
Scripture. People (community!) Time - assign a time and place to do this thing, to think about and learn about your season, to use the skills you're learning about yourself to develop in your season of living. Skill development - give yourself time to develop learning and skills. Nothing happens overnight. That is certainly why seasons last for days, months, maybe even years, not minutes or hours.
I definitely feel that this message couldn't have come at a better time as we somewhat ceremoniously step into a new season, the New Year. I know that I look at years as general seasons of life containing so many different seasons of life. I think about who I was and what I was learning about this time a year ago and how many different 'seasons of living' I have gone through in the past 365 days. It's significant really. Significant in my spiritual growth, my personal growth, my physical and emotional growth and just my daily learning.
No matter what season of life we are in, there is growth. It's interesting and eye-opening to consciously identify and keep mine in mind.
I think I can identify a few phrases of Ecclesiastes to be true in my own life that I hope to grow in.
"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven;
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."
I could not identify more with the phrases, "a time to plant and a time to uproot" and "a time to weep and a time to laugh."
These will be the guides of my next five months and my coming season of life.
What are yours?
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