What You Need to Know About Seasons
What season are you in?
Have you ever been asked this question? Weather goes through a cycle of four seasons. But there is also a cycle of seasons in our lives. In the church, we discuss these seasons in order to understand the contrast of experiences that happen in life. We experience a lot of different seasons in life. Sometimes they can be good. But sometimes they can be confusing. But here's what you really need to know about seasons.
For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.Ephesians 3:1-8
There is a time for everything. We see how clearly nothing in life can be predicted. We see the bad times as well as the good times. It all matters. It is all seen by God.
We are given a full picture of life experiences in this passage. We go through successes and failures. Highs and lows. Joys and disappointments. This passage points out the different contrasts we experience in life. It helps to reveal the seasons that we encounter in life.
When you read a book with someone, you may ask them "What chapter are you on?" They will name the chapter and might tell you the events that have conspired to this particular moment in the book. Chapters divide the story into parts that are leading you into a story. Chapters have a beginning and an end. A good writer keeps you moving smoothly from one chapter to the other. Some books may even cleanly wrap up the chapter before transitioning into the next.
We can also apply these chapters to our own life. It's what we do when we use the term seasons. We compartmentalize our life into these chapters or seasons that help us understand our life a little better. But the important thing to remember is the season you are in does indeed have a beginning and an end. Unlike the books we read, the clarity of each chapter may not be clear. The transition to the next season should make sense but doesn't mean it always does. We can encounter confusing chapters in our lives. In life, those chapters are hard to watch but even harder to walk through.
Yet, the seasons we experience form and shape us. There's so much that Solomon was learning about life. This passage can appear to have clarity and confusion among it. It appears to have many questions posed into nice and polished lyrics. This is something we may hear at a wedding in hearing about God's faithfulness into a new season. We may hear it at a funeral as a way of hearing about the loss of a beautiful life. It may even be something that is spoken to us through a series of messages to explain the pretty seasons, the hard seasons, and the dry seasons as we walk in this life with the Lord.
In the podcast, The Connected Life, podcast hosts Justin and Abi discuss the different seasons of life we encounter. In one particular episode, Abi and Justin discuss 7 major seasons of life that are necessary to our development and how they help us evolve into better humans.
Sometimes these seasons can coincide. We may recognize one or all of these seasons in our lives. We could see a few of these seasons in our lives multiple times. This is because seasons are cyclical. Winter comes around every single year, but it eventually fades into a beautiful spring.
The Discovery Season–This is a season of discovery. Maybe it is discovering your identity and purpose. Questions arise in this season. There is zero momentum forward. It is possible that you feel trapped in a desert. You are contemplating life. People may hit this at different seasons in life.
(I.e. new mother, seasoned mother, student, working professional, empty nesters)
Planting Season– Imagine a seed that is planted or an acorn in the ground. This is a work season, where you are digging into things (i.e. career--learning what to do). In this season, you are working hard to create something. You do not see the benefits of this season quite yet. But you engaging intentionally with a goal in mind.
(i.e. learning your career, journey of dating)
Payoff Season–In this season, you start to see the reward/benefit of the planting season. Please notice this could be 1 year, 5 years, or 10 years following the season of work.
Resting Season –This is a season rooted in rest, celebration, and reflection. Many people get to a payoff and miss the resting season. They are ready to get to work on the next thing. But it is okay to experience the celebration and breathe. It is important to do so. In this season, you ask these questions: Where am I heading? Is this the wave I want to ride? Is there defeat? What does change look like? The Rest season allows re-calibration. You need to celebrate what you’ve planted and built. If there is no celebration, there is no real payoff.
Mourning Season– In this season, you walk through mourning. This is the most avoided season. Tragedy strikes. People want to move past the tragedy. If we don't grieve, it becomes a festering wound. There is going to be pain. There will be betrayal. You have to be good at mourning. Pain can create beauty. Learn to accept mourning.
Pillar- Crushing season – This is a season where pillars in life begin to crush us. Belief systems are challenged. When we build our life on foundation and that falls apart, questions arise. Questions like: What is stable? What do I hold onto? Everything that used to be stable is not. You can get hardened and skeptical. A choice between skepticism or formation is made. This is the caterpillar season. How will you be transformed through this season?
Phoenix Season– This is when your caterpillar season turns into a butterfly season. A Phoenix is a mythical bird that arises from the ashes. Out of death, comes new life. You explore new parts of yourself. Something magical happens and you get put back together. In this season, you become a different person. There is something beautiful about this season. Fires burn everything and the soil becomes rich and things grow like crazy after that. The fire can actually create the best soil for new life.
There is an ebb and flow of faith in all these seasons. In each season, you are still standing in faith. In most seasons, you will need faith to remember this is not going to last forever.
Maybe you are in one of those seasons today. Say to yourself: It won’t last forever. At some point, it will end. Every season is hard in its own way. But, if you lose faith, it will crush you.
If we can name our season, we know how to embrace it and it can help in decreasing our disappointment. The author of Ecclesiastes reminds us of these seasons. There are seasons for everything and these seasons stand for many different things. Sometimes these types of seasons coincide together. For instance, I feel like I am in a planting season, while I'm still celebrating the work that occurred in months prior. Sometimes we stand in one season and sometimes we find ourselves straddling a couple of different seasons.
Just remember, each season has a beginning and an end. Every book is different. There are long chapters. There are short chapters. There are confusing and strange chapters. There are also amazing chapters. But each chapter comes to an end before another one begins. And sometimes these chapters coincide together. In the end, there is a time for everything and it really is beautiful.
There are many different types of seasons that we encounter in our life. When we walk in life, it is important to understand what season we are in. Just take a moment to think about this. Ask yourself: What season am I in?