Season of Changes

For the record, I have yet to decorate for Fall.  I have to be in the mood, temperature wise that is.   It’s been so warm and humid here, just two days ago it felt like 100F degrees.  But I fret not,  crisp cool air is on its way this weekend so I can now pull out my pumpkin scented  candles and harvest decor.  This weekend’s low will be in the high 40’s (eeeeeek! I’m so excited) and guess what I’ll be doing as I listen to college football?

In just a few weeks, another event will take place.  The season will change to Autumn and we will witness the Almighty’s hand in action.  Vibrant oranges, reds, yellows, purples, and even browns will come to life on all the trees throughout the country.  One of my most favorite times of the year.

Have you ever wondered what leaves have to go through to finally be turned into a beautiful vibrant color?  As leaves having to go through the process of change and as we get older we realize, our lives also go through a process of change.  Which is  where I am in my life today.  Nothing confirmed it more than this morning’s devotional from Lisa Allen at www.proverbs31.org  ministry.  Today’s devotional is titled, “When Change is Hard”.  This last year and a half, it seemed that my life was starting to change and get very hard.  It started crumbling one event after another.  A new boss...again, the Derecho of 2012, a loved one’s marriage falling apart, broken relationships, my elderly mother-in-law who had been living with us was  admitted to the hospital and then to rehab center  for two months, where it seems that hubby and I spent every waking moment.  Six months later she’s back in the hospital and passed away soon after.  A few months later, because of some changes in my position at work, they wanted to go in a different direction, hence unemployment.   A few weeks later I’m hearing these words from my doctor, “anxiety/depression/stress, high cholesterol, diet and exercise”.

Gadzooks!

“God!  what is going on with me?! What am I doing wrong??”   Maybe I hadn’t been faithful enough to Him.  Maybe I haven’t been having my devotions, tithing or praying like I should.  Perhaps I didn’t confess this sin or that sin.  With so much going on, it took a toll on me and I started waking up every morning feeling blue, anxious and physically sick.  But then I think, when a leaf goes through it’s changes to become this majestic glorious color in the Fall, does it complain?  Does it fight and resist?  Does it sit back and have a “woe is me attitude”?   Amazingly, not!  I’m not familiar with the exact science a leaf goes through, but I do know that the leaf begins during the dormant frigid cold, then there’s  a small bud at the end that cold winter, it has to have plenty of rain showers in  the spring, plenty of heat from the scorching sun and plenty of thunderstorms and rain in the summer and finally, plenty of chilly nights awarded with glorious days in the fall.

In some ways, I’m glad I am not a leaf but perhaps it’s an example God uses to encourage us and to show us that our lives are similar.  We will have seasons of dormant cold winters, spring showers, scorching hot (and humid) summers, and then in fall something wonderful seems to happen.  With the chilly nights and long awaited beautiful days, this once green leaf turns into a vibrant purple-ee, yellow color that we humans can only sit back in awe or take out our iPhones and snap gazillion pictures of the same tree we’ve been taking pictures of for the past 20 years.

To quote Lisa Allen in today’s devotional, this is where I was encouraged:

Perhaps you are facing a season of change and would be encouraged by some "reframing" and a fresh perspective. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God has made everything beautiful "for its own time." God has designed our lives into beautiful seasons, but there is a time limit on each one. Some seasons are wide-open doors for our passions and calling … and some seasons are closed doors when God asks us to grow spiritually, professionally, relationally, or maybe emotionally.

In this season of transition I am now starting to “get” the picture.  God has great plans for me.  How can I ever not trust Him when He has always provided for me and my family, overly and abundantly.  There’s no reason for Him to let me down now, that’s not the kind of God he is.  I have stopped asking why.  I have stopped moping around.  I don’t feel stressed or depressed.  I am almost a week into “healthy eating” and it really hasn’t been all that bad.

Only God knows though whether I am finally ready for those glorious colorful days.  I just have to continue to trust Him knowing that He’s working on me at this moment.  He hasn’t given up on me no matter how many times I asked why and I will then be rewarded whether it’s tomorrow, next month or next year.  All I know is that my new season of vibrant, glorious, rich colors is coming.

So yes, when it’s your turn to go through your season of change and when it hurts, trust Him.  He has some glorious, vibrant, colorful days ahead, waiting just for you. 

He has made everything beautiful in its time.  Ecclesiastes 3:11a

P.S.  I think I'll go pull out my Fall stuff and start decorating.  I'm all of the sudden in the mood!!

Savor your weekend friends!