“Is it almost spring?” was my six-year-old son’s constant question, every single day since February. Each day, he marked his Star Wars calendar with the appropriate number of X’s for the day, and then he began the countdown. I watched as his little finger tapped each box until he found the one marking the first day of spring. As he announced the new number of days until spring, he smiled excitedly, thrilled for the arrival of this new season. He literally prayed anxiously for its quick arrival.

Are You Embracing Your Season?

But within a month of spring’s arrival, I heard the words, “Is it almost summer yet?”  I looked at him and said, “Enjoy the season you are in right now, today.” Those words stung. I thought about my words to my son, and in that moment, it hit me. Those words were intended for me. What about you? Are you embracing your season?

It happens. Many times I find myself sometimes wanting to hurry through certain seasons in my life to get to the “next best” season. Somewhere in my mind, I can easily begin to create a feeling that where I am right now is not enough. Discontentment cultivates a lie which stems from something deeper. Just as my son ached for the arrival of spring, all to discard the much-anticipated season for the coming summer moment, so do I ache for a certain season, so I can then quickly wish it away for something yet unattainable, something perceivably better. This cycle of brokenness robs us from enjoying all that God has for us in our “right now” moment. Instead, we wait to experience Him and everything else better and fuller in a moment built on tomorrow.

I set a challenge for myself: Enjoy the season you are in right now.  My own words echoed over and over in my head. If I embrace this season and this moment completely, then my heart and mind should be fully abiding in Him and resting in the work He is doing in my life right now. What good would it be for the coming season to arrive, if I have not yet learned to abide in Him in this very moment? Waste upon waste. We bear today’s burdens here on earth for tomorrow’s joy of heaven.

The Blooms Produce the Fruit

The season of life I am in may not seem to be one that feels like a vineyard full and lush. My branch may not feel like it is producing the choicest fruits or is the most treasured of all the branches in the vineyard. But I rest in this: If I rush through the season of spring, I miss the beauty of a bloom in growth. How marvelous is the bloom! Yet how also marvelous is it to be from where the bloom grows. If I constantly rush through every season, I do not allow the Vine to do His work of producing the bloom. Without the beautiful bloom, the fruit never grows.

If not acknowledged and surrendered, my discontented spirit can be my undoing. However, if I let the words found in John saturate to my roots and I learn to abide in Him, the hope of fruit can then grow. I should not look around and decide how to hurry through the seasonal moments. Rather, I need to embrace my season and ask God where I can best serve Him.

What Season are You In?

Maybe, like me, that moment for you is at home with young children, or maybe it is in the workplace. Or perhaps you are in the season of a single person. Maybe it is in the life of the world traveler, or maybe your “right now” moment is you searching for your place in the world. We are all experiencing a season. Will we abide in Him and use every moment for His glory? Or will we begrudge our season and let our branches wither and dry?

When we abide in Him, our hearts beat with His, our minds center on Him, and we live fully for His glory. The soul who abides finds something better than contentment; it finds fulfillment. This soul moves forward with the hope of the gospel growing from every empty space on the branch.  This soul clings to the Vine, and by His grace, produces much fruit. It might be difficult to see, but He is nodding you on and excitedly leading you in your kingdom work. No matter what season you are in, embrace your season and use it for His glory.

“Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service in hell, when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle.” C.T. Studd