We’ve already made reference to the start of a new season in our previous post, but I (Neil) wanted to share a little something regarding seasons that I have been thinking about over the past few weeks. I talked about this a little on Sunday while I was hosting at our church; it’s something that has helped me, and I hope it might be of some help to you, too.

Everywhere we turn, there are many conversations about seasons. If you are a Taylor Swift fan, you may refer to seasons as “eras!” 😂 In the physical world, we are coming out of summer in the north and entering into autumn. The air is feeling much cooler all of a sudden, the calendar month has changed, evenings are closing in, kids are back to school, and the September rhythms are starting to kick back in. As we know, these changes in the physical seasons can have an effect on us. There will be those of us who are excited to move into autumn and the structure it brings, and there are those who want to hold onto the freedom of the summer months. One of the things I have realized when it comes to these seasons that we experience in nature is that it is impossible to resist them. I can pretend that the temperature is warmer, that schools haven’t started, and that the evenings are longer. I can continue to wear shorts, t-shirts, sunscreen, get the BBQ out every evening, and stay up later in the hope that merely living in the last summer season will recreate it. However, experience tells us that there will only be one winner in my attempt. I could try another approach; I could try and skip autumn, I could get the Christmas tree out, put Michael Bublé on the speakers, eat turkey, and watch Hallmark movies, but I’m not going to speed up the arrival of Christmas. We can’t resist the change of the seasons. We can’t alter them, stop them, speed them up, or divert them. They are outside of our control. They move and we react. We submit to them and accept that they dictate the tempo, and it’s our job to get into sync with them.

The same goes for changes in spiritual seasons. Perhaps if you are not following Jesus, you might not have heard that phrase before, but the Bible tells us that there are spiritual seasons. Paul talks about how the spiritual harvest will be ready to reap “in the proper time”. Peter talks about how, for a certain time, we will experience one type of spiritual atmosphere, but in another, we will experience something else. The Psalms describe how the wise person is like a tree which will produce fruit in the right season. Discerning which season we are in can be a little harder than it is with the physical, but just like in the physical, we watch for signs of that change. Perhaps we are noticing a deeper awareness of God in our personal lives, maybe more invitations to minister in different places, and more of our colleagues in work or school are asking us about God. It could be that God is highlighting some broken places in us that need attention; perhaps He is altering some mindsets we have held onto for a long time, or He is re-ordering some priorities we have been mixing up for a while. Just like in the physical, the changes we experience in the spiritual seasons can be exciting and can create a longing in us for more. On the flip side, there can be moments when we are nervous, scared, or unsure of the new season because it is leading us out of our comfort zones, and quite frankly, we quite liked where we were! At the risk of completely copying and pasting a phrase from earlier (which I definitely did)… We can’t resist the change of the seasons. We can’t alter them, stop them, speed them up, or divert them. They are outside of our control. They move and we react. We submit to them and accept that they dictate the tempo, and it’s our job to get into sync with them.

God us God, He controls the seasons, we respond.

Personally, the last 2 years would not have been a season Janet and I would have chosen if you had spoken to us about it 4 years ago. If we are being honest, it has been incredibly difficult; we have felt tested in the fire, and we have felt a little rudderless. However, we have also seen God’s favor, His generosity, as well as encountered so many incredible people over that time. We have learned so much and are grateful for that learning. We didn’t choose to enter that season as such; it was one that came for one reason or another (I’ll not get into the specifics on that one.) BUT…..once we were in it, we had to position ourselves towards the Lord and what He wanted to teach us through it. There was no point in kicking against it. There was nothing to gain from wishing our way out of it or pretending that it wasn’t happening. Our goal was to find the Lord in it, and I’m not saying we did that perfectly by any stretch of the imagination, but we did find Him and felt held by Him through it all.

Janet and I now feel we are coming into a different season. Hallelujah! We have had some nudges and ideas from the Lord regarding what that might mean, but we don’t have any definitive timelines or definite steps. However, we do feel the need to ready ourselves for whatever the Lord wants to do. It’s time to submit again, to position ourselves for whatever is next.

Ps. in no way is this isn’t a departure from theonehundredyearsproject – it’s most likely where it needs to go next!