In this moment of the season I am in, I struggle, to feel more than defeated. I desire to see the fruit of my labor before the labor is done. Because I feel as though I have patiently served with the sacrifice of blood, sweat, and tears in the labor of love, at least my fair share, likely more. Yet, I remain, in this season.
Seeds of life giving word have been planted in the garden of my heart. I have tended to its needs for some time. The ground has been cultivated mixing the soil of my heart with fertilizer as I have read my Bible diligently with an intentional effort to seek to understand. The weeds have been plucked routinely with humble prayer seeking out opportunities to eliminate the things of my life that choke the ability of the seed to grow. As I have waited for the showers to rain down the necessary food and water for growth I have fasted to deny the scorching sun of flesh; fertilizing the seeded ground.
All I know to do has been done to tend the garden of my heart into growth.
Yet, I remain, in this season.
“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 KJV
Do you feel stagnant?
Are you watching others grow their ministry outreach while you remain still?
Are you watching others around you live in a different season while you fail to understand how you remain in this season?
Are you looking at yourself in the mirror perpetually disappointed with the reflection staring back at you?
Are you discouraged by the circumstances within which, despite your best efforts, you cannot seem to move beyond?
Do you feel overlooked? Passed by. Unnoticed.
I do not know what season you remain in.
The dry barren land of heat scorching sun where you wish for the cool of shade only to discover the brutal cold of night brings a wish for warmth.
The frost of cold winter air as a blanket of snow covers the ground beneath you making your navigation of life slippery from patches of ice and burdensome to travel through as you take one slow painful step at a time.
The cool breeze of spring that feels refreshing as you open the windows of your soul only to realize the cobwebs and dust have covered corners of your heart with a filthy thick layer in desperate need of washing yet unpredictable weather variations leave you unable to figure out basic aspects of life such as what to wear today.
The heat of a summer day where you invest time in landscaping the lawn only to discover the grass has now turned brown and rain is not even on the horizon.
There are challenges of this life in every season. No perfect season exists. The natural tendency of our human heart is to desire the season to come, impatiently, longing, and without recognition of the imperfections packaged within that next phase.
Selfishly we seek for rest when it is a time for work.
Selfishly we seek for reward when it is a time for sacrifice.
Selfishly we seek for fulfillment when it is a time for longing.
Selfishly we seek for perfection when we live in a temporal fallen world of imperfections.
Selfishly we seek for our will without regard to consequences when it is a time for his will.
Selfish.
We are selfish when it is a time for selfless.
Friend, I want to encourage you today, to lean into contentment in the season that you are in without comparison to the season of others. Valuable lessons are found while choosing joy in your current season of life leaning into a trust for your God who is sovereign and always good. Even when we labor longer than preferred. Longsuffering feels like an eternity yet it is for a moment. God delivers on time in the right time according to the perfect will of His good plan. If only, we will work to tend the garden in the season we are in, lush and plentiful will be our reward.
“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.”
Psalm 37:23-26 KJV
