Spiritual Seasons
We’ve been looking around outside at our house and making a plan for the growing season ahead. The flower beds need to be trimmed, cleaned out, and mulched. The grass has bare spots that need to be aerated and seeded. And our yard always needs a good leaf clean up. Oddly enough, we don’t have any trees in our yard, but the three yards around us do, and our yard seems to catch all of their leaves as they fall!
I was listening to a podcast this week, and the interviewer asked the guest, “What is something you wish you could change about your own self?” The guest responded by saying he wished he were a gardener.
I resonated with that. I want to love to tend a garden or a flower bed, but I just don’t.
The truth is, my husband and I aren’t yard work people. I know some people love it and look forward to spending time getting their hands in the dirt every day. That isn’t us. But we do care about our house (and our neighbors!), so over the years, we’ve realized that finding help with our yard is what works best for us.
We have a new guy who will be helping us this year, so I met with him this past week to sort out the details of what needed to be done. We created a timetable for the next few months based on seasonal changes for when different tasks should be completed.
Certain things can be done at the same time, like cleaning up the flower bed and ridding the yard of the leaves, but other things will need to wait until the right time. If we were to aerate the ground and put down grass seed now, it would be too early, and we’d have to do it again later. Right now, the ground is too cold and would be inhospitable toward the seeds.
All of this got me thinking about our life with Jesus and how important the seasons are in our faith journey. Sometimes, we are in a spiritual season of winter. If we try growing new things in that season, we just bump up against the inhospitable ground. But if we recognize winter as a time of dormancy and rest, we can take a deep breath and remember that not every season is meant for planting new things.
Spiritually, we experience a mix of seasons, but they don’t always align with the calendar’s seasons, which can be tricky. If the sun is shining and things are in bloom, but we feel like hibernating because of whatever is happening in our lives, that can be complicated for us and those who love us. The same is true if the outside is cold and dormant, but spiritually you are in a season of spring. You find yourself flourishing, planting new things, and alive with energy, even though everything outside is quietly resting.
Sometimes, our spiritual seasons align perfectly with the actual seasons. We can sit in the winter of our grief while the fire is roaring and the days are dark. Or we can plant seeds in our flower bed and see new things blooming, just as our soul is also bursting forth with new life.
It feels important to pause and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, notice -
What spiritual season am I in?
What am I seeing to help me identify this season?
Does the season I am in align with the actual season around me?
What does it look like for me to be in the particular season I am in?
Am I being invited to slow down? Rest more? Grieve?
Am I being invited to plant new seeds? Till the garden? Unearth lost things?
Am I being invited to bask in the sunshine? Take a trip? Reconnect with family?
Am I being invited to harvest the seeds I planted previously? Share the fruit of my labor?
Now that you’ve identified the spiritual season you are in, is there anything you need to think about differently to be fully present in this season? What would help you draw near to Jesus during this time? Do you have any questions that come to mind that you wish Jesus would answer for you about this season?
Are you trying to plant seeds out of season? Are you trying to harvest seeds before they are ready? Are you hustling when what you really need is rest?
What would it look like for you to take a deep breath and be fully present in whatever season you are in today?
~ Melissa