A Time to Break, and a Time to Build Up

Autumn.
I love it.
I love its breezes, leisures, sights, beverages, & cuddles.
I cherish it's coming each year.
As the first snowfall fell on Niagara tonight, whisking away the last little snippets of autumn, I got to thinking about seasons & faith & defeat & victory. How we wholeheartedly embrace the fruitfulness and rest of summer, and groaningly resist the harsh bitterness of winter. We unabashedly celebrate the one, while dismissing and fearing the other.

How reluctant we are to seasons. The hard ones, anyways. The ones that take energy, sweat, perseverance, dedication, and sometimes, every ounce of comfort and security we've got.
And so we are reluctantly shoved into seasons we have neither acknowledged nor prepared for.
You see, we are a people of habit & comfort. We situate ourselves in the security of an accustomed climate and then resist its passing.

But, deep down, we know it's coming.
A change of season. A change of circumstance.
We can't control it, tame it, hinder it, or restrain it.
Seasons unhinge the sense of control & self-mastery we tightly grip.

I love how a simple prayer for opened eyes in 2 Kings 6 speaks to the power of perspective. How it teaches that the most hopeless of battlegrounds can be declared a victorious triumph through a renewed perspective.
Sometimes I think more than a change of circumstance-or season- we need a revitalized vision of the reality around us.

This fall overflowed with my countless proclamations to my husband, Dan, of the beauty of autumn. Dan jokingly would say, "you know the leaves are only that colour because they are dead, right?"
I didn't care. I loved it.
Maybe it was the crunch of the leaves. Maybe the brisk air.
Or maybe it was the notion that it is in those seasons of death that life is resurrected.

You see, as I said, we love those fruitful seasons that overflow with abundance; abundant finances, relationships, health, etc.
But we shudder at the mere thought of barren seasons, those thirsting for peace, joy, rest- abundance in any sense.
Here's the thing- as the fruition of summer could not be so without the barrenness of winter, so the abundance of full hearts would not be so without the seasons of barrenness of the heart. Those seasons of pain and brokenness.

To everything there is a season,
A time for everything under heaven...
A time to break down, and a time to build up. Ecclesiastes 3:1-3.

I don't know what season you're sitting in as you read this. Maybe you're gloriously gliding the high peaks of being built up, or maybe you're treading your feet through the muck & mud of broken down valleys.
I don't know which you're in today.

But here is what I do know.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. (Ecclesiastes 3:11). God promises this. He shouts it on the mountain peaks and declares it in the valley trenches. He walks with you on the fruitful paths and the dried and parched.
Here's the beautiful thing.
Through Jesus, we have a renewed perspective. Through Jesus, even in the midst of decay & brokenness, we can know that this season is not final. It does not have the ultimate claim over our hearts, peace, or joy, because where decay seems to reign, Jesus revitalizes. Jesus resurrects. Jesus breathes life.

The cracked, creviced, dried, parched, and irreversibly damaged ground you may be treading on today is the fertilizer, the canvas, onto which Jesus will project His tapestry.
How can I know this? Because God promises that everything will be made stunningly, gorgeously, attractively, and undeniably beautiful in its time. Not some things. All things.
All things will be made gorgeous in its time.

What would happened if we confronted our season of pain with the daring, bold proclamation, "you, even you, are being made beautiful"? Oh, the bondage of our hearts that would break if we could trust that the ugliness of today is an unbecoming beauty through the sovereign goodness of Jesus.Trusting in God's sovereignty in timing is sometimes painful, but it is intricately essential.

This won't make our seasons of barrenness easy. We will face pain and hurt. But what we will not face is defeat.
The only name we will wear, through the power of Christ, is "Child of God, purchased and redeemed."

Sweet girl, this season is not ultimate. It does not have the final say.
You know what does?

The Cross. & all it shouts is love & grace & redemption & resurrection.

Trusting in the seasons,
Liv