Living in New Hampshire, I get to experience all four seasons. At the time of this writing it is fall. The leaves have fallen off the trees and everything around looks bare. Soon it will be winter and snow will be covering the ground. I struggle emotionally around this time of year as the temperatures get colder and the sky gets darker much sooner. I accept that this is the cycle, but it doesn't make it any easier for me. Still, I need to be as prepared as I possibly can.
I am realizing all the more now that God ordains seasons in my life, and the need to be fully engaged in whatever season I am in. I am learning not to try to hold on to things from the previous season that I need to let go of to be fully present in the current one, whether it be a relationship, a ministry, a life goal, or whatever else. Not doing so is the equivalent to wearing a winter coat in the heat of summer, or shorts and a t-shirt in the dead of winter. It is often hard for me to let go, but maybe this is due partly to being unable to detect a change in seasons, or a desire to hold on as long as possible. But the more I learn to let go of what I need to from the previous season, the more I begin to appreciate the current one.
Solomon wrote of this in Ecclesiastes 3:1: "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens." In light of the different, people, circumstances, and positions that life brings at the various time periods in lie, I am learning that it really is okay to let things go. Have memories, yes. Learn from the past, yes. But also to fully embrace the present season I am in, and notice the opportunities that God has given me now that I may have be overlooking. I will have more to say on this subject in a coming post.
