What season are you in?
The flowers are blooming. The swallows are dotting the sky. The first butterflies are fluttering about. And trees are beginning to burst vibrant green.
Spring has technically sprung in Pennsylvania, but “all the feels” of the season seem inconsistent, especially on a foggy, semi-dreary Saturday like today. While Winter felt mild this year with no snowfall, the signs of spring are hesitantly showing themselves. Some days feel like summer humidity and others have felt like winter. As a Texan transplant, Pennsylvania introduced me to four seasons years ago, and now, when the season changes, I have grown rather entitled to the sure-tell signs that a new season has arrived. But, sometimes, those signs are hidden from our senses. So, we have a choice: Do we call it spring? Or, do we resist the season we are in?
Similarly, each one of us have different seasons of life. These seasons can change based on relationship status, moving, career changes, and other life transitions. Donald Super, one of the most influential theorists of vocation outlines a Life-Career Rainbow that details developmental stages of one’s career. He lays out everything from exploring one’s career to maintaining and then disengaging from one’s career (Swason, et.al, 2015). The point is: the changes in life seasons are endless.
So, what season are you in?
As spring begins and the ebb and flow of navigating my own season occurs, here are some helpful tips to navigating your season no matter the season you find yourself in:
Acknowledge your season. This may seem obvious, but sometimes we can coast through a season without even realizing what season we are actually in. In my consulting firm days, before we put together a strategic plan for a client, the three questions we had to know the answers to were: 1) Where are you? 2) Where have you been? And 3) Where do you hope to go? So, this is that first question: Where are you?
What are some of those sure-tell signs of your season? Are you single or married? Are you in a new job or have you been in the same one for a while? Do you have little kids at home, or are you empty-nesting? How are your relationships? Are people “in-the-know” or “out-of-touch” with how you’re doing? Why is that? Are you grieving something or someone? How’s your relationship with God? Does He feel near or far? What transitions are your walking through?
The questions may feel overwhelming, but they help us peel back the layers of the place we find ourselves in. In order to make progress in our season, heal, or simply enjoy our season, we must know where we are.
Discern what you want. With every season comes new longings, hopes and dreams. What are they? Before Jesus healed the blind beggar in Jericho, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” (Mark 10, Luke 18). It was this bid for intimacy and a way in which Jesus empowered him to acknowledge what he wanted. Many of us are terrified to tell the Lord what we want, for fear of getting our hopes up, even though He already knows. Are you longing to travel? Are you desiring new friends? Longing for deeper connection with your current friends or spouse? Are you single and longing for marriage? Do you want a new job or a new place to live? Are you in spring but pining for winter? (That might actually blow my Texan mind, but I see you.) Our wants often lie dormant when Jesus empowers us to acknowledge them in His presence and come to Him for healing. Does He always give us what we want? Disappointingly, no. But, His intimate presence sustains us and shapes us to come honestly before Him. I am reminded of the Israelites grumbling for manna in Exodus 16 and God responds to their grumblings. What are your grumblings?
Freely embrace your season. Now, you know your season. You know what you want and now what are you going to do about it? So many of us spend hours, days, weeks, and months wishing our season would end and pining for another season. As a grad student, who has more graduate credits than I feel comfortable sharing, I am so ready to walk across that stage for graduation next year. Graduate school is full of limitations – limitations in how I spend my time, with whom I spend my time, how much I can work out, and frankly, it’s a limitation on my energy. But, with graduate school comes so much opportunity. It has afforded me more relationships, more lenses through which I can see the world, more dreams, more personal growth opportunities, and more dependency on Christ. When it ends, I will be exiting a particular season … likely forever.
What are the characteristics of your season? What freedoms do you enjoy? What relationships do you find yourself in? How are you seeing God more? With every season comes joys and sources of grief, but God is like the friend when you share something in vulnerability who says back to you, “I’m here for it.” How are you embracing Him in this season? He’s there for it.
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; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. - Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
