Stuck in a Season
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intro
intro
1 december -28 feburary - summer
1 march - 31 may - autim
1 june - 31 august - winter
1 september - 30 nivember - spring
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
These are typical winter clothges.
These are typical summer clothes.
Why are they so difvferent? Its not like we are mov ing, we stay in the same place. They are different because the seasons are different. They dont just have different names, they have different qualities.
Because they are actually different we behave differently depending on what season we are in.
In summer we spend lots of l time outdoors and even go for swims. We east lighter meals and drink lots of cool bevreges.
In winter, we spend more time indoors, we often go to bed earlier and we eat different foods, hot chockolte and warm soup are enjoyed.
How we work is different. many jobs have seasonal changes, some are more busy in one seqson than another.
Our entertainment is different in different seasons too. Our sporting events are seasonal.
Rugby is played in winter and cricket is played in summer.
Seasons are an everyday part of oujr lives.
But Note:
We dont just have summer clothes, we have winter clothes as well. Why?
We dont just have hot chockolte in cubbard, we have fizzy as well. why?
We dont just watch or play c ricket, we watch and play rugby too. Why?
Because seasons always change. Who or what changes the seasons? God does.
21 And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
Summers does not last forever - it gives way to autim.
Autim does not last forver - it gives way to winter.
Winter does not last forver - iot gives way to spring.
and spiring does not last forever - it gives way to summer.
you know trhis.
And in each season, there are new qualities and circumstances and challanges we have to deal with.
In summer we have to deal with the heat.
In autim we have to deal with all the fallen leaves.
in winter we have to deal with the cold,
and in spring we have to deal with pollen and hayfever.
Why am i telling you something you all already know? because as nature has its changing seasons, each with it own befifits and challamnges, so LIFE does as well.
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
It is not odd or styranges when summer turns to autim. As it gets cooler and leaves start falling, you understand that autim is coming. You may not like it, you may still want it to be summer, you may miss summer, but yoju undertand and know that seasons must and will change.
And while you are cold and misrible in winter, you know that in time, the days will get longer, the days will get warmer and summer will come.
You may be misrible and coild and sick of it, but you know that winter is not forver, it is only a season.
And as much as we have figured this out in nature, i praty we will also figure this out in life.
In life there are wonderful seasons to build, to plant, to heal, to laugh, to dance.
But in life, as in nature, these seasons are not forver asnd there are also going to be seasons to mourn, to tear down, to weep and to loose.
Our big problem is that we take lifges seasons as permanent states and forget that they are not forver, but seasonal.
Failure to do so results in uneccesry spirtual and emotional pain and distress.
When a season of laughing and plents ends - we are shocked and confused and lost. We dont understand why, we thought it would last forver.
12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
And when we are in a season of moring or loss, we thing it will also last forver and we get depressed at life and misrible at our situation which we think will last foever.
but i wont.
5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Right now, the condition of your spiritual wellbeing depends on wheather or not you understand lifes’s seasons or not.
If you are not well, and i dont mean in body but in spierit. If you are not doing very well, it is most likley 1 of these 2:
Either your seasons of plenty and carefree life has changed and you are not very upset, scared and confused.
Or
You are in a difficult seasons and think it will last forver and this is your life now.
Seasons normally change gradually - autim and spring are actually the gradual change from summer to winter.
But scientists often recods what are known as Foehn effects.
These are rare metorlogical situations which result in rapid and sudden season changes, often happening in a few days, they are normally the result of intense storms which alter the atmosphere conditions.
When this happends it is always followed by very high cases of flu in the populations, in fcats its knownn as S.A.D - Seasonal Affectadive Disorder.
The body does not have a change to aclimitise to the new season.
We have all just suffered a Life Foehn Effect.
Covid-19 is a season changer - and it changed things very quickly.
in March we had no idea this stiorm was coming. Wedding were being planned, birthdays were being organised, church dinners were being discussed, holidays were being booked. Jobs were paying well, families were having braai’s, life was going on asnd we were unare that everything was about to change, like has never been recorded in the history on South Africa.
And as a result, many people, many christians are suffereng with Spiritual SAD - we are spiritually sad.
Are you sad? Im not surprised. The seasons changed quickly for all of us.
What do we do to cure our SAD’s?
1: Well for seasonl changes the doctors reccoment boosting your immune system with vitamins.
And i fully agree - What itamin C does to the body, so the Word of God does for the soul.
8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.
21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.
22 For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
You need to be extra dosing on the Bible.
2: You need to adapt to the new season.
Like we dont swim in winter like we do in summer, like we dont eat ice cream in winter like we do in summer, each season requires us to make changes.
We cant do church like we normally do, we we made changes. The situation is not ideal, but it has to be this way.
You need to adapt. You need to change the way you spend your money. You need to change the way you handle stress, you need to chnge the way you normally pray.
The faster you realise that the seaon has changed and longing for things to go back, will not help you.
If you keep wearing summer clothes in winter because you love and miss summer, you will be a very cold and misrible person. And if you keep trying to live, spend, behave like you did before covid you will misrible too.
Paul adapted to his seasonl changes in ministry:
19 For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.
20 And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;
21 To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.
22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
3: And Finally, just remeber that no seasoins lasts forever.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
God who supplied you with the rain in summer, will uphold you in through the drought in winter.
This will end. Your job will come back, your savings will grow again, regular church services will resume, Peter styvisants will be sold again.
How we sow in each season will determine our harvest in the next.
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Now is not the time to faint or grow weary. Now is the time to sow.