Reflecting on the spiritual seasons of life.

What season of life am I in right now and what is God doing in that season?

I sat with this reflection question after listening to a recent interview on Annie F. Downs podcast: That Sounds Fun.  

I’m fortunate to live in a city where I experience all four seasons.  I don’t think I want to always live in a climate where winter exists but, it does give me the full perspective of living through seasonal changes.  As someone who has been dabbling in gardening for over a decade, I frequently resonate with God speaking to me through the four seasons.  And scripture isn’t lacking when it comes to pictures of fruitfulness, pruning, green growth, or even, the harshness of winter: 

While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22 ESV

He is like a tree 

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.  

Psalm 1:3

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

John 15:1-2 ESV

What images do you picture when you think about the four seasons? 

What words come to mind when you think about each season?

Are there feelings that surface when you think about how you experience each season?

Meditating on or journaling about these questions can help you uncover what season of life you are in right now. 

Summer or fall?

Snow blanketing the ground and the bitter cold could be your physical reality but not your spiritual reality.  Spiritually, you could be experiencing summer!  Summer feels like a season of abundance.  In summer, the days are long with time for you to enjoy play and invest in relationships. The sun warms you with its radiant glow. You crave outdoor experiences where life seems easy.  Your calendar is filled with events that you’re looking forward to: vacations, weekend trips, and celebrations. There can be hard work to do in summer but it feels light and you see immediate benefits. In this season, you experience a high amount of joy and often!

Or, you could be in the middle of fall.  Fall looks like the culmination of a season of hard work as you begin to enjoy the harvest.  Life is busy as you experience the shift in your calendar to increased commitments. Days are full with school, work, training, projects, practices, and deadlines.  You are in full on production mode.  And reaping the benefits of growth!  You might be tired but it’s a “put your feet up with satisfaction” kind of fatigue.  Your belly is full from feasting!

Winter or spring?

Winter will come soon.  The light fades to night quicker.  You start and end your day in darkness. You rely on porch lights, lamps, even Christmas lights to give a little bit of breakthrough glow in winter.  Winter can feel isolating and alone.  You might need this time of rest and solitude.  Or, you might need to put on your winter gear and brave the cold to find the connection your heart is longing for. Your view out the window could be more death than life:  Empty trees. Brown and gray everywhere.  A clouded over, hazy sky.  Winter can feel harsh and overstay its welcome.

But, at the end of winter, you lift your head to take in the beauty of spring.  From the ground, covered in old, brown leaves and then watered with white snow, springs up shoots of green.  A little sign of hope! Spring is the season of all things being made new.  In the place of what has died and gone into the ground grows something new.  Life after death.  Spring also brings the promise of flourishing.  You view splashes of color everywhere as you live into the hope of new things to come. The sun boldly shines in the sky offering warmth, beckoning you to come outside and be refreshed. 

A season of preparation.

As I sat with my journal asking God about what season I’m in right now, it didn’t easily fit into one of the four seasons.  It actually felt more like a transition between two seasons.  In the quiet, I heard: Early spring.  It’s the time before you SEE the promise of green and new life.  It’s a season of preparation. 

God reminded me of what’s required in early spring to make the garden ready for new seeds and plants.  It requires digging up plants that died through the winter, uprooting what has been in place the previous season that won’t come back to life.  Early spring requires my hands getting dirty as I push around the soil to see what’s underneath and identify where the garden needs fresh soil or nutrients. Making the soil ready is a necessary step before planting for the new season.  The garden beds are stripped to the bareness of the soil. Nothing is coming up out of the ground….. yet.  

“Yet” is a word that holds so much hope.  Hope that when the seeds go into the ground, they will produce. There will be beauty.  Growth is anticipated.  New life is expected.  Hope that requires waiting and trusting.  Hope in what is not yet seen.  

Sound familiar?  

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.  
Romans 8:25

What season are you in?

Early spring is the spiritual season I identify with while my physical reality is winter. The view out the glass doors of my writing space is overcast skies, dried up leaves, barren tree branches, wilted plants, and stillness.  It doesn’t feel alluring. It’s not time to get to work in the garden.  In contrast, God invites me into the preparations for spring. He entices me into the hard work of getting my heart ready.  He shifts my imagination from what is now to what is to come! As I partner with Him in the working and the waiting, I imagine what newness will enter into my life when Spring arrives in all its glorious beauty! 

As you reflect on which season that you are in, consider one more thing:  Where do you see God with you in the season you find yourself in?  I picture His hands on top of mine, helping me uncover whatever it is that I need to dig up before new seeds can be planted. I imagine the joy on His face as we work side by side. I feel comfort from Him that whatever is under the surface of my heart, He will tenderly bring it into view. Whatever season you identify with, I’m praying you’ll notice how God’s presence is near to you, overflowing with His love for you!