Embrace the Season
The year I was born, my Dad took my Mom to the hospital early. If I remember the story correctly, she wasn’t in labor but, she was close enough to her due date that the impending snowstorm had him a little skittish. And there, sometime during the evening, I entered the world. A birthday spent in the snow.
My most recent birthday, forty-two years later, was spent hiking with my family on an uncommonly warm day. I wore knee-length leggings and a short-sleeved shirt, working up quite a sweat as we traveled up and down the terrain for miles. A birthday spent in the sun.
The reason my birthday weather is different every year is that I was born in early March in the midwest. For months in this part of the country you never know if it is going to rain, shine, snow, or some combination of all three. Extreme seasonal fluctuations are commonplace, eliciting the same funny, predictable, memes every time it happens. I just simply can’t count on my birthday to be any one experience. Instead, I just have to wait to see what God provides and make a decision at the moment. Goodness, wouldn’t it be nice if I could be that flexible about other “seasons” in my life?
Like Christmas, which I expect to go a certain way.
Summer vacations should be “just so.”
My kids’ birthday parties I wish would be smooth and stress-free.
The dinner I made was supposed to turn out well.
Or, like tomorrow. For which I certainly have expectations. Expectations that Jesus may, or may not, see the same way.
The Season We Want Is Not Always the Season We Get
Biblically, the concept of seasons is obviously not just about weather. When God left us Solomon’s wisdom on this in the book of Ecclesiastes, he did not assign any particular time to those descriptions. Instead, he just gave us words. Words that describe opposite ends of the human experience that may pop up at any point, not necessarily because we’ve done anything right. And, not necessarily because we’ve done anything wrong. But, just because he has allowed that “season” for that time. As it says…
“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” (Ecc. 3:1-8 NIV).
And, in a similar vein from Matthew…
“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45 NIV).
In short, we should expect that our experiences or “seasons” in life, whether long or short, important or mundane, are going to vary and that’s part of the design.
Cultivating Peace in Every Season
For so many of us, things going a certain way can be a hang-up. But, the flexibility I seem to feel around my birthday is actually pretty freeing. As such, I now wonder if we might be able to apply this same principle in other areas of our lives. For example:
Can we be okay with our career path both when it is a time to weep and a time to laugh?
Can we find peace in a difficult relationship where sometimes we are embracing, and sometimes we are not?
May we rest in the trust of searching for a home or a job when it’s time, and also trust if God says it’s time to give up?
Can we truly embrace the season God is allowing, even if a birthday, holiday, vacation, or dinner plan ends up being a time of loss, sadness, or restrained silence?
It would be hard but, I know I would certainly benefit from that mindset.
Let’s go ahead and ask for that now.
Lord, I pray you would help each of us to develop a flexibility of spirit to wait upon whatever season you are allowing in our lives, rather than creating a plan of our own. We are able to do and enjoy so much more when we wait to see what you have prepared for a particular “season.” We thank you for the variety you allow in our lives and the immeasurable ways this blesses us. Our seasons are just going to look different sometimes, Lord. May you help us to embrace it.
is an author, speaker, professional counselor, marriage and family therapist and veteran coach’s wife. She and her husband Tim have two children and are passionate about reaching people for Christ and sharing information on coaching, marriage, family, and mental health. Read more from Anne at www.annerulo.com.
Photograph © Chris Lawton, used with permission
