Changing Seasons

This morning I woke up to another dramatic change in the seasons. The calendar says it is November 12, yet the last few days have felt more like the middle of May. This morning, with the sun peering through the shades of our bedroom window, fog was lingering over the front lawn. With a bit of a chill in the air, I went to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee to curtail the cooling effects my body is experiencing. (I normally don’t make coffee in the morning but today warranted a full pot to help minimize the shock of the cold in the air.) This isn’t the first chill we’ve experienced this autumn. However, it’s the bouncing back and forth between winter and summer that is shocking to my flesh. I’ve thought of the changing of the seasons many times this fall. You see, I strongly dislike the cold. Actually, despise is probably a better word. However, I’m attempting to embrace the changing of the seasons realizing that this is a part of living in this “neck of the woods” as Al Roker would say. (I remain confident through faith that at some point in my life, God will bless me with the opportunity to live in a warm climate such as can be found in South Florida, Southern California, or better yet, Maui. My wife votes for the last option.)

I have often heard it taught, “The physical always precedes the spiritual.” Whether you agree with this concept or not, it’s interesting to think about because it does just that . . . it makes you think. So I’ve been thinking about the changing seasons in the lives of those around me. In my short 42 years of life here on this planet, I’ve never experienced a time like this where the people around me — nearly every single one of them — is experiencing a dramatic change of seasons. Some are preparing for marriage. Others have packed up their bags and moved to another part of the country. Others are changing jobs. Yet others are considering changing jobs. Some are trying to figure out what they are supposed to spend their lives doing. And I’m trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up (and how I can make it Maui)! With all of this happening, I’m trying to learn and impart some of the things that I feel like God is speaking in the midst of the change.

1. The changing of the seasons is a normal part of creation. Whether I like it or not, God did not create this planet to exist in the same state 12 months out of the year. He created everything with the principle that life couldn’t be sustained at the same level or intensity. Even nature needs a break. Every climate has varying degrees of changing climate. It’s part of creation. As it relates to our lives, we should learn to embrace the rhythms of changing seasons as it gives a fresh perspective and appreciation of what is past and what is to come.
2. Winter may be here, but it doesn’t last forever. If you’re with me, your response is, “Thank God!” Summer will be here soon enough. In the meantime, winter serves a function. It gives us a break and helps us to perhaps stay inside a bit more. It causes us to appreciate the easier, more carefree times. I must admit, I’ve learned more in the winter seasons that I ever did in the carefree times of summer. Winter is tough. Yet it is necessary for things to come to life and grow according to the way they were designed. When God walks us through a winter season, we must realize that it is an absolutely necessary part of life. Without it, there would not be life. The principle is that life flows from death. The Bible is filled with the principle. Jesus demonstrated, and Paul taught it. (Philippians 1:21 — For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.)
3. Two seasons, although similar, are never the same. If you think you’re going into winter, and it will be like every other winter, you’re wrong. The same is true of any other season. Every season is different and therefore has different things to teach us. I am reminded to approach the changing seasons realizing that there is something new that I must learn. There are new areas in which I must grow. I can’t approach life the same way I did in the past. If I do, then my life will grow mundane and predictable. The mundane and predictable are safe but pretty boring.
4. The changing of the seasons prepares you for the season that is to come. I know personally, I’ve been in a series of crazy seasons that really began during the summer of 2009. The journey has been pretty intense. Although I really can confidently say that I’ve learned more about God, my wife, ministry, life, people, and myself during these last 18 months. As I’ve learned and moved through these seasons (not always as well as I would have liked), I continue to sense another new one coming. It has been a long winter, but I do sense summer coming. I personally believe that this summer is the best that I’ve known up to now. Yet, had I not gone through these last seasons, I would never be able to walk into this new one that is before me.
5. How you finish one season determines how you enter the next. Of everything I’ve said, this is probably the hardest to walk out. I don’t know about you, but as I can sense change coming and one season ending, I tend to already be mentally and spiritually in the new season. I “check out” of the current season in a hurry to get to the next. I keep reminding myself that the fruit you sow in one season will be the harvest that you reap in another. Growing up a farm in central Indiana, I understand that all too well. My father ended spring knowing that it would determine what would happen in the fall. What he reaped in the fall wouldn’t just affect fall, it would affect the finances of the winter and the following year. He never had the luxury of “checking out” of a season. If he did, he would literally pay for it for the next two years. We’re the same. God is preparing us and teaching us in one season for what will come in the next. If we try to rush the ending of one season for the coming of the next, we will personally become responsible for hijacking our destiny in the season to come. Hijacking doesn’t mean that our destiny is thwarted. It just means that we end up on a detour that leads us off track for a season — oh yes, another season!

This reminds of Ecclesiastes 3. “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” (NIV) I encourage you to read the entire chapter. Verse 11 says, “He makes everything beautiful in its time.” So here’s to beauty. I don’t know about you but I want my life to be a beautiful reflection of the One that made me.