Although I live in sunny Orlando, FL where the only two seasons are hot and hotter, I still have a really great appreciation for the fall. Growing up in both Illinois and Michigan, every natural season is easily identifiable. Winters are cold and brutal, springtime is beautiful and promising, summers are hot and always too short, and then there is fall. During the fall months leaves start changing into what seems like an infinite palette of colors. The air, while not yet cold, has a noticeable crisp to it. Fall fashion is my favorite of all seasons. It’s not too cold where you need that Eskimo-like winter coat, but just cool enough to wear a light sweater, a cute scarf and boots. As we are approaching the first official day of fall, in the middle of this blazing hot Florida summer, I find myself so grateful that every season has an end.
During a Sunday evening service my pastor said something really simple that helped me have peace in a very difficult season of life. He said, “Every season has an end.” I know what you’re thinking, “Duh,” but to me it was something I really need to hear in that moment. After enduring loss, heartache, betrayal, and a barrage of other life obstacles I found myself asking God when it would all be over? Each day seemed more difficult than the last, and I clung to the Father like never before. This season seemed endless. It just went on and on and on. I felt like I was at my wit’s end, then comforting, timely words arrived on the scene, “Every season has an end.”
In the natural you can always tell when people are fed up with cold winters, or tired of sweating during the hot summers, because they start complaining about it. One thing is for certain complaining never causes the season to shift. There is a preset time for that part of the year, and it isn’t going to change until the Creator of the seasons says so. It’s the exact same way with spiritual seasons. They have an allotment and a purpose to fulfill and, sometimes, there is nothing we can do about it. Oh but when it’s over, what a sweet, glorious ending it is! Occasionally a season has been so wonderful you are sad to see it go, but the way my season was set up, I couldn’t have been happier to see it leave.
As a matter of fact, after enduring this brutal time, nothing felt better than to watch it go. Good-bye, Adios, Au Revoir, all that to say, good riddance! The season served its purpose, hopefully I learned every lesson that I was supposed to learn and I found strength in areas that I didn’t know I had. Therefore it was not a complete waste and even though it was painful, I will absolutely never be the same after experiencing it. No matter what we go through, no matter how unbearable it may be at times, it can’t last always. Whatever you have been going through, be encouraged, it will end, it absolutely has to. Wave goodbye to that old season and prepare your heart and your life for the new!
Photo Credit: © Aspenphoto | Dreamstime.com – Biracial Young Woman Sitting In The Grass Photo
