Discovering God’s Purpose in Every Stage of Life
As you flip to a new season and a new month on your yearly calendar, Franklin Road Baptist Church is also entering a new season. We are stepping out by faith into a new service schedule to reach more people with the Gospel of Christ.
While we often look toward seasonal calendar changes with excitement as we welcome new weather or take a seasonal trip, we often look to the changing seasons of life with doubt, anxiety, fear, and even dread, just like that pollen that is getting ready to hit Middle Tennessee with a vengeance.
Just like each year is made up of seasons, so is your life. While our church finds itself in the midst of a season of growth, you are also in a season. For some, it may be an exciting season of preparing for a baby, a marriage, or starting a new job.
For others, it may be a burdensome season as you grieve the loss of a loved one or adjust to a new health difficulty. For some, it may be a waiting season as you just work through where you are and what the Lord has next for you.
The wisest human who ever lived, Solomon, wrote about the seasons of life in Ecclesiastes 3:1-11. God is not only the Creator of seasons, but in His infinite wisdom, He uses the pen of the wisest man to provide principles we can apply to our seasons. As I have said from the pulpit many times, “Our goal is not just to go through life but to grow through life.”
Whether you realize it or not, in this new season you find yourself in, God intends to use for your growth and His glory. Rather than asking yourself, “How will I ever survive this season?” begin seeing this season from Heaven’s perspective and ask, “How is God going to grow me through this season?”
When I find myself working through a season, I run to the following reminders from Ecclesiastes 3:1-11.
SEASONS ARE DIFFERENT, BUT THEY EACH HAVE A PURPOSE
By nature, we can get so distracted or distraught in the seasons of life that we can miss the purpose of the good and the bad. As Ecclesiastes 3 begins this well-known poetic monologue on seasons, the foundational principle of seasons starts the chapter, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”
I have found that the older I get, the more I despise the extreme seasons of the year. I like the sunshine of summer, but I dread the hot, humid sun. I like the beauty of the snow, but I find the miserable cold and brown dormancy of winter to be discouraging. On the other hand, I love the spring blooms and neutral days of spring, and I love the cool nights, warm days, and college football of fall.
While I have my favorite seasons and you have yours, I have had to learn that each of them, whether I like it or not, serves a purpose. If it weren’t for the cold and dead days of winter, the spring would not feel as beautiful. If it weren’t for the long, hot days of summer, the cool, fall nights would not be as crisp. Our goal is not just to go through life but to grow through life. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
While we may not love every season of life or of our year, we must admit that a life of no seasons would cause us to miss the purpose. You need the tearful seasons to know the joyful seasons. You need the grieving seasons to appreciate the living seasons.
You need the waiting seasons to prepare for the working seasons. Because we have a God who knows best, you need the season you are in right now. While it is good that your grieving or weeping season won’t last, you will have seasons of grief again.
While it is unfortunate our joyful seasons don’t last, you will have more seasons of joy than the one you may be experiencing. It is important to embrace all seasons with the perspective of Psalm 118:24, “This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
SEASONS DON’T LAST FOREVER, BUT THEY DO REPEAT
Merriam Webster defines season as, “a time characterized by a particular circumstance or feature, a suitable or natural time or occasion, an indefinite period of time.” By definition, we see that a season doesn’t last forever. Solomon reminds us of this in Ecclesiastes 3:2-8 as he shares an overview of seasons of birth, death, planting, healing, weeping, laughing, mourning, dancing, war, hate, and many more. For some, the truth that seasons do not last forever is good news because you’re ready to get out of the one you’re in. For others, it may be a little disheartening because you’re loving your current season.
“I don’t want to get so busy building a life I want that I miss the life I have.” Your season of joy right now is preparing you for your next season. It may be a joy in something different, but it is joy brought to you by the same God. Your heavy seasons that seem too great to bear are preparing you for the next heavy season.
As a child of God, you can embrace and even cherish the season knowing that it won’t last forever. It will come back around again, and you’ll get to see God work all over again! You need the grieving seasons to appreciate the living seasons. If we are going to grow through this wide range of seasons, we must provide some Biblical perspective.
While seasons don’t last forever, they do repeat themselves, not just on our calendars, but in our lives. While seasons repeat, not every season on the calendar looks the same as the previous year.
SEASONS FEEL LONG, BUT THEY BRING BEAUTY
I have a tendency of so desiring the next season that I miss the one I’m in. I’ve heard older Christians, parents, and pastors say you eventually run out of seasons to look forward to. Several years ago, as I was trying to teach myself to slow down, I typed these words into my phone: “I don’t want to get so busy building a life I want that I miss the life I have.”
We live so fast, and we always want to move on to what is next, but what if, in our haste to move on, we’re missing what God is doing right now? Some seasons are busy, some seasons are bad, and some are boring, but with the help of God, each of them can be beautiful!
Ecclesiastes 3:10 says, “He hath made every thing beautiful in his time.” Where you are may not be beautiful, but it is preparing for beauty. Beauty may not even be found in the next season, but beauty is found in the timing of God.
As a pastor, I am learning that you ride the seasons of your own life and the lives of others quite often. There is very rarely a day when I don’t interact with people who are in extremely opposite seasons. Sometimes, my own personal life is in a different season than the ministry. Some seasons are busy, some seasons are bad, and some are boring, but with the help of God, each of them can be beautiful!
My prayer for our church in this season is the same as it is for you in your season. May we be reminded that God is always working toward beauty in our season. This season, let’s all take some time to stop and enjoy what God is doing right now and look forward to the beauty He will produce in His time!
– Joel Norris, Senior Pastor