Embracing Your New Season/My Modern Day Journey in Faith/ “Enlightenment Series”

The leaves change colors. 

The air becomes cooler. 

You trade in your short sleeves for long sleeves. 

Pumpkin Spice coffee is consumed by the gallons. 

Yes, folks it’s officially “Fall”. The summer season has packed it’s bags and it’s now the Autumn season. 

Even though this happens every year, some of us tend to have a hard time letting go of one season to embrace another. 

It is the same as some people having a hard time letting go of their summer attire in October, we often do have a hard time shedding the emotions of past seasons in our lives.

Can you tell me what is your favorite season? 

How do you embrace the change in weather? 

I will tell you that my favorite season is Spring. 

I love peeling off the many layers worn in the winter, to enjoy the warm breezes that come with the birth of Spring. 

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; …” Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

As I read those verses, I realize I have done all of those things this year alone. I can say that God has taken me through a maturity lesson in which I have finally begun to accept. It is all a lesson. 

God knows as humans we must feel the changes and we also must accept them. I will always think of the year 2020 as my year of change.

In high school, I had a friend named Melissa, who refused to wear pants or a coat no matter the time of year.

I mean all year long, this girl would only wear shorts and a T-Shirt. whether it was 90 degrees or 10 below.

Back then, I honestlyI thought she was crazy. But, as I got older, I began to think that she was truly on to something because no matter the seasonal changes, she carried the attitude of expectation. 

Yes, the season was rainy and cold, but her attitude and clothes embraced hope for the warm and sunny months to come. It is funny how God gives us lessons learned in the small nuances of our lives, and just as God’s word instructs us to know of life’s seasonal changes, is how we carry on with our everyday grind no matter the temperature!

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,” 1 Corinthians 15:51

As the seasons of our lives change, we must be able and ready to embrace the next one. 

We have time to grieve, time for anger, time for sorrow, time for loss and we have time for pain. 

But, we are not meant to stay in those places all our lives. No matter how long this year seems to be. 

We must go into each season expecting the next to be better. 

We must be hopeful that even though we are living now in these uncertain times, we will be better after a while.

They say time heals all wounds, but as Christians we must lean on our heavenly doctor. 

We cannot deal with change by ourselves, we must lean on God who provides our hope for the future.

So I ask that you enjoy each season whether it’s every few months or every few years. 

Each season has its own strengths and weaknesses, but with each season you gain more wisdom and knowledge to face whatever may come next. And we must always be ready for what God has for us next!

Everything under the sun is not made to last forever, yet God has and will always be the same.

I challenge you this week to embrace this new season of your life with gratitude and expectation of the better to come. 

I know many are hurting, but trouble was not meant to last always. 

I challenge you to jump into some leaves, buy some Pumpkin Spice Coffee, pull out those Fall decorations and embrace the cooler temps. 

It is a new season to be blessed. You made it through so you might as well dust off the old emotions and adapt to some new ones. 

As always you got this!

Sincerely,

Terryn