Seasons.
It is the term Christians have adopted to identify where they are at in life.
I’m in a waiting season.
I’m in a dry season.
I’m in a season of singleness.
I’m in a hard season.
I’m in the harvest season.
The list goes on and on.
I confess that I too use that phrase often to articulate the status of my life. With the changing of the leaves, the fall air, and winter quickly approaching, I have found myself asking the question: is it biblical to operate with this “season” mentality?
Really, the question surfaced after multiple conversations with friends that all seemed to have the same base – they identified a season they were in and either claimed they wanted it to pass or they wanted it to stay.
Seasons are biblical.
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. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
However, what we have done with seasons is tried to make them something we control. If we are in the hard season we long for it to go. If we are in the abundant season we long for it to stay. Seasons are biblical but control is birthed from the flesh and Paul makes it clear all throughout Romans 8 that flesh is the opposite of what God desires from us.
Seasons don’t stay and they don’t just pass. You go through one to get to the next. You go through the harsh Winters to get to Spring. You go through Summer to get to Fall.
Through.
That is what we have been missing. Seasons are founded upon the concept that you go through them. The reality is Fall doesn’t last forever but oh rejoice because although a season doesn’t stay forever that also means the hard seasons don’t either.
If you are waiting for it to just “pass” know that things don’t just pass. We trick ourselves into thinking something has passed when really it has only penetrated deeper and learned how to hide. The only way for something to pass is for you to go through. Change comes when we stop using “pass” as something we hope happens but something we make happen – go through it. Solomon’s writing in Ecclesiastes 3 included actions. Weeping seasons require you to weep. Laughing seasons require you to laugh. Planting seasons require you to plant. etc. Seasons include action. We can no longer settle for seasons where we stay static just waiting for them to end.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. Isaiah 43:2
God does not promise the stormy waters will be non-existent. He promises to be with us when we go through them. God does not promise that the fire will be extinguished instantly. He promises when we walk through it we will not be burned. His promises are activated, fulfilled, and experienced in the process of going through.
I am praying today that our language would change from “Lord let this pass” to “Lord let me go through it.”
What you are desiring for the most could be contingent on your willingness to step. Move forward like the seasons.
Go through it.
His promises will meet you on the journey.
