A REASON FOR A SEASON

The trees are blossoming, the tulips tuliping (my new word) and the daffodils smiling. This time if year reminds you that something is coming…that warmer days are ahead.  

It also reminds me that it’s yet another season. 

Lately I've reflected on these chapters in our lives, these seasons. God is the same yesterday, today and forever, yet in our walk with the Lord, things change.  Circumstances, jobs, families, us. The seasons.

I'm experiencing a new season in my life. My daughters are “flying the nest” as they finish their education, pursue careers and develop intimate relationships. My husband and I, who lived apart for the first 3.5 years of our marriage, are now living together, yet we have such strange schedules that we actually saw each other more when we lived apart. In the past 4 months, we’ve faced unexpected financial challenges and both of us have been laid off work. We remember my mom who recently passed and are reminded of our aging parents.

And my 5k time is getting slower.

Sometimes it seems like too much to handle psychologically, emotionally, physically, spiritually. I was hoping this was going to be my season to ride off into the sunset…

Instead of just accepting and flowing with the season, I find myself wanting to know the reason behind this season, as if somehow that would help. Perhaps its because I can look back now to past season and say "“that was the reason for that season.” But when I’m in the middle of it, I just can’t see it. Would knowing really change the outcome? 

We learn in Ecclesiastes 3, that  
There is a time and purpose to everything under heaven. 

Sometimes the more we know, the more we think we know. And the more we think we know, the more we strive to know. Yet there are more things we don't know - like when we're going to de, what Paul's thorn in the flesh was or when Jesus is coming back. And that’s okay. Because we know God and HE knows.

James 1:2-4 explains a purpose:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

John 16:33 encourages us

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

And, Romans 8:35 says

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

As helpful as these verses are, they don't really give us a detailed reason. So I conclude that what God doesn't reveal to us, He just doesn't need for us to know.


And what about patience? We want to see the tulipings start tuliping and the crab trees blossom now, but maybe -  just maybe - we won’t see that until eternity. Maybe a big part of our joy in heaven could be related to learning what all these reasons are for these seasons. 

So I keep running those 5ks, I keep serving as I’m headed to Honduras for a mission trip, and I keep applying for jobs and I keep trusting. One day, one step, one moment at a time, sensing the very presence of God. I don't know much, but I DO know that nothing will ever separate me from His love. And perhaps that’s all I need to know.

Don’t Know Much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD6TfEWtIYI



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