Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Living in the Different Seasons by Michael Podhaczky

Every year has its seasons, i.e. summer, autumn, wither, and spring. We can all have our favourite season/s. Some may like the heat in summer, or the colours of autumn, it could be the refreshing chill of winter, perhaps it is the new life of spring. I personally really enjoy the cold and starkness of winter. Many of the trees have lost their leaves and reveal their basic form; the skies are overcast and bleak, which I find curiously comforting.

It can be like the season we go through in life. It may be over a month, year, or lifetime. We can have seasons of heat, which can push us to seek refreshing. Then there are the colours of the transition of life around us. There are the seasons of chill and starkness where things may appear to be void of life. In contrast, other seasons have newness of life everywhere we look.

Wherever we find ourselves in the seasons of life, we all have the same opportunities to embrace or reject them. As I have said, I enjoy winter; even though it appears that nothing is going on in the natural world, plenty is happening, it just is not visible. For instance, the work happening in the soil creates humus as the plant is producing the nutrients to fuel the transforming growth in spring. Although the plant's effort is not going into the leaves and fruit (as it is not the season for this), this is a time of preparation for when these will appear.

The season that I struggle with the most is summer, as I wither under the heat and especially humidity. However, I can still learn from this challenging time in my life and see Christ in the season. We all have our testing season/s that will challenge us.

Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes spoke about the various seasons that come along for everyone on earth. Some we will enjoy and others we will not. He said that,
1 “For everything, there is a season (set time), a time for every activity under heaven… 11a Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time” (Eccl 3:1,11a NLT).
So, what is our favourite season, why is it the one that most enjoy? What is the season/s that we struggle with the most? Why is that? What can we learn from the season that we strive with the most, can we see and hear Jesus during this time? What season are we in right now? Is it a challenging season, what would happen if we saw and heard Jesus in this season?
Pause in His presence for a moment and think this over…

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