Every Season

Fall arrived in Minnesota on Wednesday morning; did you feel it? There was a coolness in the air at 55 degrees when I work up and I wondered; ‘what happened to summer?’

What happened to the “dog days of summer”; those days that last thru August, those days which typically observe the warmest summer temperatures? It seemed as though we went right from hot to cold in one week!

I realized that Cathy and I hadn’t been to the family cabin since the seventh of July and soon the nights would be too cold to warm up the lake enough to swim in!

As I laid in bed pondering what else I had not been able to get into my summer schedule, a verse from the Bible came to mind that reminded me that everything has its time; “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…” meaning that there is:  

 

                      A right time for birth and another for death,
                      A right time to plant and another to reap,
                      A right time to kill and another to heal,
                      A right time to destroy and another to construct,
                      A right time to cry and another to laugh,
                      A right time to lament and another to cheer,
                      A right time to make love and another to abstain,
                      A right time to embrace and another to part,
                      A right time to search and another to count your losses,
                      A right time to hold on and another to let go,
                      A right time to rip out and another to mend,
                      A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
                      A right time to love and another to hate,
                      A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

                                                                    (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 MSG)

 

That means everything has it’s season, including summer (and friends, and jobs, and houses, etc...)

 

Soon students will be back in school and stands will be filled on Friday night for football games; as well as on Saturdays (college) and Sundays (pro). In a very short while the mornings will be much colder and the leaves will start to change.

 

And, dare I say it; we will no longer need to cut the grass because it will be covered with snow. Ok, I’ll stop; the temperatures will still get up to the upper seventies this week and eighties by the weekend and nineties by next week so my rambling on this point may be somewhat premature!

 

But how do you handle the changes when they come; in all areas of your life, not just the weather? Do you spend the first portion living in regret for what is passing away?

 

A new season is coming ready or not. How will you respond to God’s invitation to take off and enjoy the new season in your life? Will you respond with excuses and complaints like you have all your life….

 

Or will you respond with admitting that something needed to change in your life and step out with your eyes fresh upon Him as you wait with joyful anticipation what is around the corner?

 

IT’S REALLY UP TO YOU…. 

 

"DIVE IN"; I say, and embrace the new season that has arrived! There is something new that is on the horizon! New adventures, new delights, new possibilities! And yes, even new problems and challenges that will drive us either further into our ‘pouting’ or closer to God as we anticipate His provision during this new season.

 

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding.” (Daniel 2:20-21 NKJV)

 

New King James Version (NKJV)  The Holy Bible, New King James Version Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson