By Traci Bolden
Center Director
Just like the natural seasons change, so do the seasons in
our lives. There are seasons of
happiness, seasons of waiting, seasons of growth, seasons of sorrow. Each one of us will experience these ever changing
seasons sooner or later in our personal lives.
It is easy to praise God during the seasons of happiness when everything
seems to be going our way, but there are seasons of life that are more
difficult than others – seasons of growth and seasons of sorrow. The season of growth is usually not pain free
because you are being stretched beyond your comfort zone, which can be painful. We see this a lot in our children as we
challenge them in their own walk with the Lord.
The season of sorrow is also painful, especially when it involves the death
of someone you love. This can be the
most difficult season, because it is final.
My dad passed away almost a year ago and there are still days that I get
overwhelmed with how much I miss him. I
miss his hugs and all the things about him that drove me crazy. The one thing I know for certain is that God
is there with me on those days. God is
there in the depths of our sorrows.
I was sitting in church a few weeks ago when the pastor
reminded us that we are always on God’s mind. I pondered that for a moment and thought to
myself, there is never a moment that passes or breath I take when God is not
thinking of ME! Wow! How powerfully that resonated with me. Just think about that for a minute. When God looks at you and me, he sees us as
valuable and precious. He thinks of us
with goodness and grace. That is exactly
the sentiment we love to share with our clients that come to Care Net. If that realization affected me so profoundly,
someone who has been a Christ-follower for many seasons of life, how impactful
would that be to someone who is meeting Him for the first time. There are seasons where we forget about God, but
HE NEVER forgets about us!
Seasons of waiting can certainly test our patience while
waiting on God to answer a prayer or fulfill a Ecclesiastes 3:1 reminds us that it is His
perfect timing not ours….”There is a time for everything, and a season for
every activity under the heavens.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 also encourages us to remember that God’s blessing
comes through these times of waiting.
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart;
yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” It makes me smile when I think about all of
the wonderful things that God has blessed me with. God wants to use us and He is perfecting our
faith in the process during the seasons of waiting.
There is a promise in the Bible that tells you not only that
God is working but also how God is working, and you need to claim it while you
are in your time of waiting: “I am the
LORD, and when it is time, I will make these things happen quickly.” (Isaiah
60:22). There is the old saying, “God
may be slow, but He is NEVER late!” He
promised!
In every season, whether it is a happy season, a season of
waiting, or a season filled with grief and heartache, God is teaching us to
trust in Him. Every season of life has a
purpose and we must choose to focus on God’s goodness. It is during the seasons of waiting and being
still before God, continuing to pour our hearts out before him, that he does
some of his most magnificent work. It is
in the wilderness or the quiet times that God can restore our hope and deepen
our character. It is in the waiting that
I get to know God’s heart more intimately and begin to realize that He is my
life.