To Everything There is a Season

To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or purpose under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

As I took Sasha, our 4 ½ year old lab/pointer mix out for her morning run, I became aware that the autumn season was upon us. A brisk chill in the air, leaves turning color, pumpkins on many doorsteps and some neighbors getting a new roof not only reveal the season we are in, but also the season that is quickly approaching.

Over breakfast we’d reminisced with a long time friend; recounting events of the past that had marked our lives in significant ways. This friend had introduced us to outreach ministry 23 years ago. That season led us to know God, hear His voice and respond to Him in obedience.It made me realize that we are always in a season of some kind or another; a time of change, of growth, of preparation. Seasons mean change. God always intended for our lives to be in the middle of change. Seasons were meant to come and go, to be replaced by the next season.

God says in Ecclesiastes that there is a season for everything, and a divine purpose for that season. Whatever season we are in, God is in the middle of it. He is using that season to mold and shape us for His glory now, but also for the next season.

So what season are we in?

What could God possibly want to be teaching us?

How does He plan to shape us through it?

Some of that we know and some we don’t . . . We know that we are to go to Zambia, we are to leave behind what is comfortable and secure, we are to trust God in ways we have never had to before. Clearly we are to have compassion on those from a different culture and love them in real, authentic ways. We know that in order to do this it requires that we are totally dependent upon God to speak, move, reveal, provide, and protect. While we don’t all that He has planned to do with our time in Zambia, we know that it has great purpose and impacts eternity.

So, what season does God have you in?