A season of change

It is my opinion that there are moments of life that really change your perspective for the balance of your years.  More than that – they change who you are – and that for the better.  For the most part they are also more than moments, often they are significant seasons of life.  They can be altogether very good seasons – like a purposeful sabbatical for instance.  But I would venture to say that for the most part, such seasons are forced upon us by circumstance.  When that happens they can be quite…challenging. 

Nevertheless, most will get through these seasons, and they’ll be the better for the experience.  I don’t say that casually or flippantly - I myself went through one about fours years ago when I changed careers, and I know how difficult it can be (in my case that season included 19 months of unemployment!)  Yet I would also say that such times can add tremendous value to you as a person. 

Maybe it’s the simple fact that suddenly you have both a challenge and time to think about it.  Maybe it’s just that it feels like a giant ‘reset’ button has been pressed and there doesn’t seem to be any other recourse.   All the same – your circumstances have changed (or are changing) and you will either adapt or be destroyed by it.  To adapt you’ll have to reconcile the gap between what you say you believe, and how you actually live.  In doing that, such times change who you actually are.

For those who know Christ, it is here that the rubber meets the road.  Suddenly you have to put into practice what you’ve so long claimed to believe.  And either you really do believe it, in which case you will draw you closer to Him - and you have such a profound sense of intimacy with God that you almost regret having to step back into ‘normal’ life - or otherwise you’ll have to grapple with the fact that your spiritual and emotional tank is overflowing with anger and disappointment.  Either way, the secret of who is filling that tank will be revealed.  That leads to a fresh encounter with Jesus Christ – either in worship or in repentance (and probably in a both).