Will God Liberate Me from This Season?

What is your favorite season? My apologies to the beachgoers, but summer is definitely my least favorite. I don't mind heading out for a walk, getting all stinky and sweaty, but then it's back in the house and I'm sealed up like canned corn. No grocery shopping with the smell of wilted produce wafting from the trunk. No outdoor barbecues with my make-up pooling under my eyes. And definitely no sand. But what would life be like without seasons? Seasons happen because life is lived. Autumn is creation's preparation for rest after a busy season nearest the sun. Spring is nature's awakening, new life appearing, and old life being renewed with vigor. Summer and winter are seasons of stability; that which has been birthed is now living to its fullest, that which has fallen to decay rests quietly on the forest floor awaiting the time it will nourish new life. The alternative to any of these things is unthinkable.

Seasons in life are just like that. (In fact, it's sort of funny when you hear folks talk about seasons --it's the difficult times we label "seasons": we like to keep our eye on the fact, seasons come and go. During the easier, more productive or more prosperous times, we tend to think that is simply "how life is supposed to be.") Life being lived results in seasons, but seasons can be difficult and unwelcome. We may ask God to liberate us. Just make things stable, or normal, or pleasant. The price of that, however, is life truly lived. If we could all just choose to be canned corn, stay in our climate-controlled environments, never experience loss or joy, trouble or sunlight, joblessness or success, we would have no seasons. But we'd have no life either. What if every day was a "good" day? What if we never got sick and there was never any reason to discipline our children? What if finances were never tight and the car always ran perfectly? That would be wonderful! you say. Would it? How long before we were bored? How long before "good" became "Let's do better" or "Let's get more"? And don't bad days give us an appreciation for good days? This world was never meant to satisfy us. And it doesn't. The seasons we go through prepare us for something eternal. Going through those difficult seasons changes how we think about life, how we approach problems, and who we rely on to get us through them.

So often we just "want this season to end." I've said it. I've even looked back to seasons I know were difficult and longed for them like Israel longed for fish and leeks, "if only God will get me out of where I am now!" However, I serve a God who works all things out for my good. And while that's an encouraging promise when I'm in the midst of a hard season, it also means I'm probably going to remain in that season until things are worked for my good. Ooops! 

Jesus came that we might have abundant life, a life lived! That means there will be seasons: seasons of growth in which we are prospered and stretched or humbled and bent; seasons of decay where those things within us that must be crucified will fall to the forest floor and become fertilizer for eternal things; seasons of stability where every day is the same as the next and quiet is the only sound we hear; seasons of unrest and turbulence and busyness where all that growth is put to the test in an exhaustive outpouring of service. And God will liberate us, but I think we have to be careful we're not so quick to cry Uncle!