Today it was easy to be content. SO easy. This morning the air was crisp and cool, the sun was bright, and the wind at bay. The boys threw rocks into the lake that literally seemed to sparkle, and as they laughed and played I sipped my coffee, hugged my sweatshirt and was taken in by the stillness and beauty of the scene before me (yes, I still live in Nebraska, I’m not in Tahiti, trust me, it was gorgeous). My soul was recharging. A few deep cleansing breaths beckoned me to stay and never leave. “Ok!” I thought, “I will live here. Right here on this rock, my kids will bathe in the lake, Brandon will catch fish and we will build a hut out of… um… something. I. Am. Not. Leaving… Ever.” 5 Minutes later Roman sneezed up a bucketful of snot which my sweet husband wiped up with his t-shirt, skipping rocks lost its’ luster and I couldn’t think of anything to build a hut out of, so we hauled it back up to the “Exploder” (Explorer – again, a story for another time). But we had our moment.
Our moments aren’t always so breathtaking. Sometimes they’re straight crazy. Sometimes breathtaking is exactly the word, because we are literally out of breath just trying to stay afloat. The phrase, “It’s a season,” has become something of a “Taylorism.” It’s something we say whenever we are extra busy, extra tired, extra happy, or extra… anything really. You can generally be present and/or persevere when there is a reminder of it’s temporary impact. When we launched B2 Interactive a year and a half ago we knew things were going to be busy. Often as we let out tired sighs in passing we uttered the encouragement, “It’s a season.” — The busyness part, don’t worry Bill Hipsher (business partner), we’re in this thing! As a parent how many times have you heard an older generation smile sweetly and remind you of how fast it all goes, so hug on your little ones?! It’s a season. Biblically speaking, there are seasons in life. And we are wise to acknowledge, engage within, and persevere through whatever season is being offered at the moment, knowing that it is appropriate to laugh, dance, build, speak, weep, search, tear, and a time to die.
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens…” —Ecclesiastes 3:1
What I think we sometimes fail to acknowledge is that there is an appropriate season for everything under the sun which means, there is an inappropriate season to express the same things. It takes wisdom to manage and respond to seasons and all that they ask of you, well. Here is what I encourage you to consider:
What season are you in? What is it asking of you?
When it is time to laugh, laugh. Engage in the moment. Refrain from traveling mentally or physically where beckoned into a place that steals from you the goodness of the what’s going on before you. Be available to reap the benefits of blessings.
When it is time to weep, weep. Do not try to force laughter into a season when it is appropriate to heal. And do not devalue grace by expecting that from anyone else. It is my opinion (I can’t say it is biblical, just my own heart pumping here) that weeping can be better medicine than laughter. Can be. Biblically speaking, It is seasonally appropriate.
God put boundaries on certain seasons ultimately to give us freedom to experience them at their best.
I believe that seasons are powerful life shapers. We enter and exit various seasons with the context of our own set of experiences that impact the way we respond to what’s next. That can be a display of wisdom, but we must be careful how much we let seasons dictate and define. That which you offer the power to dictate and define is whatever you have given Lordship in your life.
It is also wise to define and be aware of what is a season and what isn’t. So many people go through the pain of decision making when this isn’t defined. Easy example: my marriage is not a seasonal thing. We go through varying seasons within our marriage, but when we said “I do,” we meant it until death parts us.
Seasons are temporary, they are not eternal. Even this world is temporary. Are you prepared for the season you are in to change? Engage appropriately within the season you are in and allow it’s shaping to mold you into the person God had in mind when he made you. In doing this, we are most prepared for the eternal.