Preparing for the Next Season
[bl]I[/bl]t’s that time of year. We’re anticipating the coming Autumn. The heat has subsided a bit and the dark settles in sooner. Calendars are beginning to govern again, sleep schedules are shifting, and number two pencils are fully stocked at every Target and Wal-Mart. I’ve been purchasing books for discovering the Middle Ages. We have a year of art, castles, European and church history, Medieval times and Renaissance culture to look forward to.
It’s also the time stores start tempting us with good sales because they know we’ll take the bait as we prepare for cooler weather. Old Navy had their kid jeans for $10. A great deal for a family who buys about ten pairs of blue jeans each time autumn comes around. The t-shirts I wanted for my girls were $28 each, which I would never pay. So I decided to make them instead. Pretty cute, huh?
Thanks to my partner in creativity Tessa Stockman, we completed 15 t-shirts in one weekend. Even the dads helped with some stitches!
I enjoy preparing for the next season. It’s an opportunity to go through closets, clear out and donate items we don’t need or want, and clean those areas I don’t get to on a regular basis. A new season has me noticing just how much my children have grown as I fit them for larger clothing. It has me looking forward to a change in what we eat. The grill will soon get tucked away and the soup pot will make its way to the front of the cabinet.
How wonderful of a God to give us seasons. Seasons of weather. Growth. Rest. Struggle. Joy. Contentedness. Restlessness. Hunger. Satisfaction. Celebration. Restoration. Every season of our life is valuable to our journey of faith. For when our realities change we learn, we grow, we search, we cry out, we wonder, we anticipate, we pray more, we slow down, we invite more often.
And the One who created us reaches into these human responses to change and uses them to turn our eyes to him.
There’s always a bit of anxiety anticipating the next season. For we don’t quite know what it will bring. We can always expect the corn to be sweet, the leaves to turn colors, the air to get cold….but we can never be certain of where our hearts will journey. If sickness is around the corner. Or our husband will come home without a job. Or if death will enter our home. Or life will begin to form. Or a child will take a road we know will lead to pain. Or a friend will need us more than we can give.
And how do you prepare for such seasons as these? There’s no sale at any store that has what you need for the deepest grief you’ve ever known. What can we possibly do to get ready for heartache? What would we do or buy to anticipate the coming of joy? How do you prepare your heart to leave a place you want to stay?
The only way to really prepare for the next season is to trust.
Trust in the One who knows what is coming. Trust in the God who holds it all in his hands. Trust in the Lover of your soul who will prepare your heart. Trust in Our Provider who will give us what we need to survive, endure, thrive, live in the season to come.
May uncertainty keep our knees firmly planted to the ground. A posture that ought to be familiar to us. A place of comfort and freedom, as we come before our Father with a trusting heart believing he will bring all things together for his glory.
Trust him today.
I know someone who is. A friend who is trusting in God for the next season. She is a stay at home mother of five who has walked a hard road for several years. She has weathered through broken dreams, a loss of a child, a cultural adjustment, irregular income, and a fearful intrusion in her home. On Friday her husband called to say he was fired. On Saturday she had an up-side down garage sale. Freely giving away items their family no longer needs. She’s not scrambling for money or crying out in fear. She is trusting. She is giving away what she has in recognition that God has always provided for her, and he will continue to do so. There is uncertainty in how monthly rent, groceries and homeschool supplies will be purchased. But she is standing on the promises that God cares for his creation and gives them what they need for faithful living.
Let us follow her lead and trust in God today for whatever comes tomorrow.
#288 Michigan’s beautiful summers
#289 The way Uganda captures hearts
#290 A weekend away with the dearest of friends
#291 A brother who saves the night
#292 A husband who does what is needed to fix things
#293 The questions of my oldest daughter
#294 The way brothers are learning to work things out
#295 My friend who must be cut from the same soul as me
#296 $6 t-shirts
#297 Dads who sew
#298 Painted cabinets
#299Those who lead us in trusting the Father
