I have always really loved the concept of seasons. I love the blooming of flowers in the spring, the days lasting so long in the summer that it makes every day a perfect day for nighttime adventures, the sound of leaves crunching underfoot in autumn, and the peace of watching snow fall outside while I’m warm inside in the winter. I also enjoy looking back on previous life seasons and the lessons I learned in them or the memories made during them, or imagining what future seasons might have to hold. Usually, I intentionally try to be present and content in whatever season I find myself in. But what about the “not-season seasons”-- the times of transition when I’m not really in anything stable or established and I’m not exactly sure what is going on or what God is doing? These are the hardest seasons for me, especially when I have no idea when I’ll get through this time of transition. Things right now seem to be uncomfortable, awkward, and so ridiculously complicated. And I’ll admit it, I’m exhausted.
But in my exhaustion, God has been reminding me of His goodness, and that it is constant, no matter whether or not I can see it, or feel it, or experience it, or whatever verb you want to insert there. And I want to clarify something, sometimes God’s goodness is very different from our idea of goodness. That right there is a hard pill for me to swallow, and I will admit that most days I want God to be on the same page as me when it comes to what “good” is or is not. But, fortunately for us, it doesn’t work that way. God’s goodness isn’t selfish or inconsistent. It is so much deeper and greater and more big-picture-focused than we could fathom (Isaiah 55:8). And that truth should give us the confidence to pray for His will to be done because His will isn’t to grant us our fickle, ever-changing desires but rather to make us more like Him so that we may reflect Him and bring Him glory. Now, that doesn’t mean God is going to only put us into situations that grow us, such as always being around people who drain us so that we learn to love like He loved or have patience or show kindness when it would be much easier to be rude or cold. I absolutely believe the times that stretch us are very necessary and God uses them for good, but He also invites us to walk with Him “beside still waters” and to “lie down in green pastures,” intentionally dwelling peacefully in His presence so that He may “restore our souls” (Psalm 23). Remembering this is essential for me when I am in a “not-season season” because it allows me to just be with Him without worrying about trying to put a label on whatever this moment of life may be or what exactly the next step will look like and how to get there. And with that in mind, the moments when I go from green pastures to a valley of the shadow of death, I don’t have to fear because He promises to always be with me.
So in these transition periods of my life, the ones where everything seems to be so chaotic and I always feel like I have good reason and justification for being stressed or anxious, God graciously reminds me of His goodness and of His promise to “never leave me nor forsake me” (Joshua 1:5). He invites me to place everything-- and I mean everything-- into His hands and say to Him “Thy will be done” while trusting that even if things don’t turn out exactly how I hope or imagine, or even pray, He is still so utterly, completely, perfectly, indescribably, unfathomably good.
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