A Time for Everything

A year has four seasons. The cropping cycle has seasons for sowing, growing and reaping. Our lives go through seasons, our families go through seasons, even our careers have seasons. Solomon understood that everything has seasons and outlined that inevitability in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” 

I wasn’t particularly fond of the rest of this chapter growing up. Build, laugh, dance? I’m on board with that! Tear, weep, mourn? No thanks, I’ll pass. However, as I grew more aware of the world around me I realized we don’t really have a choice. The tearing, weeping and mourning is inescapable. So, instead, I learned to accept and even expect the parts of Ecclesiastes 3 that made me cringe. 

Wait, Go, Grow

Accepting this fact, however, is not resignation. Resignation is passive, it’s giving up on a situation. Acceptance is active, it’s acknowledging what is in your power to control and what is not. Acceptance sets you up to take the next step. Regardless of the season, you can choose to be intentional and even thrive in each one.

In my life, I’ve found that seasons usually have some element of waiting or going, coupled with a dose of growing. The waiting seasons can challenge and they can reward. Our faith can be strengthened and our hopes fulfilled. God works while we wait. But we don’t have to wait passively; we can also grow. Can we deepen our devotion in our wait? Can our patience increase in this season?

If this season is calling you to go, then go and grow. God may have asked us to take a leap of faith or trust His leading in a new direction. We may not have all the answers, but we can learn and grow along the way. Have we gained a new perspective? Are we relying on God more than ourselves?

In each season we know that whatever we do, we can do it in the name of the Lord (Colossians 3:17). Whether we are waiting or going, we can be content with growing through God who gives us the strength to get through it (Philippians 4:13). You can grow in each season as a person and in your relationship with the Lord.

For Such a Time as This

Jeremiah 29:11 confirms that God has a unique plan for each of us. Whichever season you are currently in is part of that plan. I don’t think Esther completely understood the purpose of her royal season at first. She trusted and was obedient, but not until her uncle shared these words did she fully grasp where God had led her: “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place... And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Esther 4:14.

What season has God called you into today? As a spouse or parent? As a leader or employee? As a sibling or friend? God has a purpose for you in such a time as this. How can you thrive in this and every season of your journey?