The Archives: Seasons

I love autumn.

The leaves are turning into rich hues of golden tones, deep reds, vibrant oranges and mustard yellows.

The days seem to dissipate into cooler mornings, requiring you to pause just as you put your hand on the door handle and question whether or not you should take that jacket. The days shorten and we find ourselves more frequently inside, pulling out the ugg boots from storage, the blankets from the top shelf of the cupboard and cuddling up on the couch.

I love autumn. 

But when the days begin to get colder and we slide on into winter my joy at pulling on a coat or sitting beside a fire disintegrates as winter wears on and wears me down. As much as I don’t like winter, it does not completely dampen my mood, because there is thing that I know, this truth I hold onto - winter will end.

Such is the way of the seasons. They are ushered in and enjoyed to the fullest and then quietly ushered out, hidden away until the curtain rises again for them to take the stage again. Because they each have an appointed time, a call time where they are required to grace us with their amazing ability to paint the world in different hues, like an expert artist can interpret and create their masterpiece.

Recently I did a crazy thing - I quit my job. I went from a well-paying job to stepping out in faith by resigning.

Now this decision wasn’t a rash decision, it wasn't one I took lightly and I sought wise counsel on the it before I made the leap. But when it came down to it the decision was to be made on this question - was I going to trust God or was I going to play it safe? Was I going to allow God into my life to disrupt and remove me from my comfort zone or was I going to stay with what I knew?

The thing about seasons is that they seep in. You don’t really notice the first few leaves begin to turn until the half the tree is covered in yellow leaves. You don’t notice the slow but steady temperature drop until you go to reach for your jacket.

Seasons seep into our lives and we don’t notice it until we’re half way through the transition and we’re wondering how did this happen so quickly? But that’s just it, quick is not the way of the seasons and neither is it the way of God. 

I used to find the genealogies listed in the Bible confusing. Didn’t really understand why God would include them, especially when some of the names listed aren’t expanded upon so we don’t know if they are great people of faith…..

The earth has just dried up from the flood and Noah and his family start to populate the world again as they world population grows they begin to spread eastward, then the Tower of Babel happens where God confuses the language of those who inhabited the earth in Genesis 11. From verse 10 we receive an account of all of Shem’s (son of Noah) descendants. You have Arphaxad who was the father of Shelah who was the father of Eber, who was the father of Peleg who was the father of Red who was the father of Serug, who was the father of Nahor who was the father of Terah who was the father of Abram.

That’s seven generations before we arrive at Abram. 

God is measured calculated in his ways, he is always 7 steps ahead of us and before we know it we arrive at a point i our faith where he asks us to step or out and we stand there stunned and confused- who did that happen? how did I end up here? but you ended up here because like the seasons, God was feeding his ultimate plan into your life and just like the leaves you did see things changing until you were already well and truly into a new season.

seasons aren’t about what’s happening around you, it’s about what’s happening in you. Season change externally so that you may be changed internally.