It’s all seasonal

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” - Ecclesiastes 3:1

The final day of our holiday came like a bolt out of the blue. It shouldn’t have really because we all knew the date of our flight home. However, there is a saying that time flies when you are having fun. We were in the sun, waking up when we wanted, not having to rush to do school runs or catch buses or trains to work. We spent the days having fun, visiting places to learn about the country's culture and history and we ate lovely food. 

So the thought of returning to a cold wet England and back to the daily grind of our jobs, the school run and the boring weekly food shop was enough to make us think that our holiday flew by. Then to top it off, it was back to the calendar reminders of the constant school awareness days consisting of red day, yellow day, odd sock day, World Book Day (aka only dress like Spider-man or a princess day) and inside out clothes day (I think I made the last one up but you get my drift!). 

These awareness days at school are now just known by the colour of the clothes your children are meant to wear, rather than raise awareness for the important issue or topic. So on the way to school when I’m asked “Mommy, why am I wearing red today?” I’m racking my brain thinking, is it world mental health day? Is it children’s mental health week? Is it Comic Relief or is it neurodiversity day? Guess what? I usually get it wrong! So all this to say that with the busyness of everyday life, you can probably see why as a family, we were never fully ready for the final day of our holiday (or vacation for the Americans reading 👋).

However, whether we were ready for it or not, the holiday had to end because it had a fixed end date whether we liked it or not. This applies to life generally. Just like the weather, life is seasonal. The things we do in life have a start date and an end date. Sometimes we know exactly when it’s going to start and end like a holiday abroad. Other times, the end can come out of the blue like the sudden end of a job.

Going back to the scripture I started with. The Bible says there is a time and season for everything on earth and ultimately God decides when that season or a chapter in your life comes to an end. 

Planned changes

“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland” - Isaiah 43:19

With some things we do in life, we know that there is a start date and an end date. These are phases in our life like school, university, job placements or moving to an area for a set period of time. The end of these life phases are usually marked by an event like a graduation, a leaving party, a leaving meal or goodbye messages. Even if we will miss that chapter of our life, planned changes often have closure because the end was planned and the end was marked in some way.

A planned change that comes to mind for me is Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus knew the phase of his earthly life was coming to an end. Even if no one else, even those close to Him, understood what was going to happen, Jesus did and He knew the end date. 

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life” - Matthew 16:21

Jesus knowing the end date didn’t necessarily make the ending easier for him. Jesus, divine in nature, was in temporary human form. Therefore, He still felt scared and worried about His upcoming death. So much so that Jesus asked the Father to stop it from happening. Even though Jesus knew that the end of this particular season would mean that He would defeat Satan and would bring freedom to humanity, for those who choose to believe in Jesus, Jesus was still scared to go through the process.

“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” - Luke 22:42

We can be like this too. For example, the planned change of finishing studying will lead to the job we always wanted or at the very least a job that will give us financial stability of some sort. However, we can still be apprehensive about going through the process of ending the season. Some younger people, similar to what Jesus tried to do, may try to stop it from happening. They do this by applying for a masters degree instead of applying for jobs because then they don’t have to end the season of university life. 

Unplanned changes

“A time to plant and a time to uproot” - Ecclesiastes 3:2

Then there are unplanned changes. If planned changes, that we know are coming, can affect us then just think how unplanned changes affect us. These are the sudden unexpected end of a job, the end of a relationship or marriage, the end of a friendship or other social ties with acquaintances. 

Now sometimes these can be explosive changes that you never saw coming. They can be the discovery of an affair that destroys a relationship. It can be a falling out with your best friend, which has damaged the friendship so much you both know it can’t be repaired. It can be the meeting where you find out you will no longer have a job. 

Other times, it can be a gentle simmer that slowly increases the heat, rather than an explosion. A simmer that allows the realisation to suddenly dawn on you that the season is ending. 

It’s the realisation that as much as you care for your spouse, you are no longer suitable for each other, or as the bible says you realise that you aren’t equally yoked. 

It’s the realisation that you have outgrown the friend who you've had since you were both teens. When you both met on a Saturday to go to the cinema, buy CDs and then getting an apple pie and ice cream from McDonald's.

It’s the realisation of what you once thought was your job for a good while yet, is coming to the end of its season and it’s time to move on. 

It’s the realisation that those acquaintances or the friendship group never really liked you and were using you. 

When I think of unplanned changes, two people I think of are Elijah and Elisha. Elijah and Elisha’s life is documented in the Bible. Elijah was a prophet and Elisha was his disciple and protege. One day Elijah and Elisha were travelling to Gilgal, when God decided that He was going to take Elijah to heaven, for good, in a whirlwind. 

This would’ve been all too sudden for Elisha, this was his friend and mentor suddenly disappearing from his life. Elisha went into denial mode, when a group of prophets asked him if he knew that Elijah was going to be taken away by the Lord that day, Elisha responded “Of course I know,” [...] “But be quiet about it” (2 Kings 2:3). So instead he kept following Elijah around everywhere, even when Elijah told him to stay where he was.  

“But Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and you yourself live, I will never leave you!” - 2 Kings 2:2

Now, did Elisha’s plan of fighting the unplanned change with denial and attempted delay by staying by Elijah’s side work? No. It was God’s planned change, so it was going to happen whether Elisha liked it or not. No amount of denial or attempted delays was going to stop it. 

What Elisha didn’t realise, at the start, was that the end of this season, through a sudden unplanned change, would lead to a positive new season for him. By Elijah going to heaven in the whirlwind, meant that Elisha received double the portion of Elijah’s spirit. God gave him this because he needed it in his next assignment. Elisha went on to perform double the amount of miracles that Elijah did while he was on Earth. 

Sometimes God closes that door and ends that season of your life because that place or the people, from that previous season, cannot go with you into the next season. This is because they will not allow you to achieve your full potential or their presence in your life will cause you to sabotage the next assignments God has for you. God cannot let that happen.

God hears what we don’t

Also we need to remember that when someone is suddenly removed from your life, it can be because God hears the things that they were saying about you when you weren’t around. So for your emotional and mental protection and sadly sometimes for our safety, God will remove people from your life or remove you from a place in order to end that season. Remember man’s rejection is God’s protection. 

“Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear!” - Luke 12:3

Reluctance 

If you ever feel stuck in life then it’s probably because God won’t let you move into your new season. Like I said earlier, God won’t let you bring a certain place or certain people into the new season He has ready for you. So God will wait for your obedience to move in blind faith into the new season, which can mean letting people and places go, even if you don’t know exactly what’s on the other side. 

However, God has assignments that He wants completing and He will only wait so long. Therefore, if you are reluctant to close the door on your old season, for whatever reason, or you want to close it but now is not the right time, or there are a few more things you need to sort out first. Then you will find that God just decides to close it for you! When this happens, it will be sudden and sometimes dramatic for all involved. So you have been warned, disobedience to God’s “go” can bring you more drama than you want or need! 

New seasons

When it comes to unplanned changes. Personally, I’ve learned not to fight them because I know it’s all part of God’s plan. God can’t open my next door until I let Him close my current door. I have to trust and let God, who is The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit, close my current door to end that season of my life. This is because God has told me that He will never leave me nor forsake me. I have evidence in my life where God has demonstrated that this is true. He has never left me, even when in the past I’ve foolishly left Him. God has also never left me without I've closed a door that He's told me to, even when on the surface, it’s looking like I would be without. God always provides for His obedient children.

When God has come to me during my prayer time or when I’m just doing mundane tasks, as He likes to do, and He has told me to do something new or make that change. I act on it in blind faith, even if it’s a bit scary and it has always worked out. God might take me on a journey down some winding confusing paths but ultimately it works out. It will then make sense why I’m in the particular new season. So now when a season ends, I accept it’s God’s will, I embrace it, act in blind faith and then see what adventure God has for me next! 

So the next time you feel your current season is coming to an end, remember there is a time for everything and God just might be giving you a new thing. So pray about it and God will let you know or give you signs if He is moving you into a new phase in life. Then embrace it, act in blind faith and see where God takes you or which wonderful people he brings into your next season!

“So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you” - Deuteronomy 31:6