Seasons

What's your favorite season?  I love summer more than anything else.  Sitting on the beach watching the waves pummel the sand.  Taking the kids to the pool and doing goofy dives off of the diving board.  Atlanta Braves baseball in my favorite chair with a cup of iced tea.  Going out for ice cream.  Days that last past 9 p.m.   Hot, steamy, balmy weather where you can't seem to cool down enough to stop sweating.  I love it all!

I'm not opposed to fall because with it comes college football, and with spring there is finally the hope of warmer weather.  But winter...oh how I loathe winter.  I would rather wilt under the August sun and humidity than be out on a cold wintry day.  Everyone has their favorite seasons and these times of years can often dictate our mood and overall demeanor (I get a little down in the winter time but summer makes me happy). 

Life is full of seasons as well.  There will be periods of time when it doesn't seem that life could be any sweeter.  Could you be more blessed?  Then there are dark seasons, times where God seems far and distant and clouds dominant your perspective.  Could life be more frustrating and troubling?

Maybe you find yourself in a difficult season right now.  Perhaps work or school or relationships are incredibly frustrating and you feel as if you are in a foreign land.  How do you handle the seasons of life that seem to kick you when you are down?  Do you hunker down and pray that it will pass or do you seek to find where God is at work in all of it?  No one wants to be stuck in a season of life filled with uncertainty and discouragement.  Yet every season carries with it the promise of a better season in the future.

I believe that God has us right where He wants us for His reasons.  The seasons of life that we experience are opportunities for us learn and grow more than they are for us to run and hide.  God is always at work - He is never silent - and you can be assured that during a difficult season there is so much about His character and grace and nature that He wants to reveal to you.  And just as summer is my favorite season, it's even more enjoyable when I share it with others.  In the same way we must have others pull alongside of us during the difficult seasons so that we won't have to walk them alone.