I love autumn! No, really. Like most people love summer, I love autumn. I spend January to August abiding weather changes, planting seeds, and tolerating ridiculous temperatures just because I know fall is waiting, and there will be so much reward.
The crisp air… my trees pregnant with apples and pears… the steady, thrumming pace of back-to-school and football hype… the promise of harvest… and yes, absolutely, the brilliant, soul-blinding colors of the leaves as they bid farewell for another year.
It captivates me, sweeps me up into a glorious wonder I cannot describe. My heart beats faster in the fall. The only thing I dislike about the season is that it ends. I cherish winter too, but I would keep autumn if I could.
And yet every season ends. It is inevitable — even life-giving. Every season must change in order for the cycle of life to continue.
I know this. I am a testimony to it. Even the joy I feel surrounding autumn exists in part because it lives in the commodity of time. If it were less rare, it would be less wonderful. We grow tired of that which is incessantly familiar.
So, why is it such a human condition to fear change? Why do we kick against the goads when the Holy One challenges our comfort zones by asking us to pack up camp and move on? Do we not realize it is a mercy? It is clear in the Old Testament that as YHWH led the Israelites by cloud and by fire, it was in intimacy. He was near to them. With every relocation, He was teaching them to trust, inviting them to draw nearer.
Why, then, do we fight so hard when He offers us the same gift? We are called to change.
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
There is a precious reason we struggle with change. It can be because there is such beauty and value to the current season. The thought of change can lead us to fear of the loss that will come when things shift. I have experienced such losses in recent years.
The change of my mother’s cancer diagnosis eventually led to the end of my relationship with her this side of eternity.
Choices to obey God’s changing direction in ministry have led to the waning of certain friendship due to geography. It just happens.
My son’s change in status from high-schooler to young adult has brought so many transpositions, including his being away from home a lot more.
These have been difficult, even painful shifts, but change is also beautiful.
My son is becoming a man. I would not hold him back for one moment from all that God has for him.
I miss the former seasons of those friendships, yet, had I not obeyed the Almighty, I would now find myself stuck in the miserable middle of overthinking and regret while simultaneously trying to find meaning.
And, oddly, while I would instantly turn back the clock and live in a time when my mother did not have cancer and could still walk with me in life, I doubt she would. I could never justify having her with me when Eternity called her to Himself.
Change can feel like a death. However, if we hold on too long… if we try to freeze our reality in what feels like its most ideal point, we can actually bring its demise.
Think of what happens to a pond with no inlet and no outlet. Without change, that ecosystem will stagnate. Life will not be able to thrive there. Imagine if we held our children back from growing so we did not have to face the painful change of their launch from the nest. Can you imagine a 22-year-old traversing through life as a 2-year-old? It’s a tragic picture. None of us would demand that of our babies. Change is a necessary component of growth, and growth is the mark of life!
Now, I hear your vehement protest, “But doesn’t God say, He doesn’t change?” Yes, God does say that, but He is referring to His character, not His methods or His means. Regarding those, He is ever moving, hovering, dancing, creating.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19
Can you catch the excitement in Creator’s heart as He whispers through Isaiah? “You haven’t seen anything yet!” It doesn’t get much more changing-of-seasons than turning deserts into riverbeds! And don’t we want that? Instead of the dry death of clinging to the season that was, don’t we want the satiated thirst of what He has next?
I have watched with aching heart as people held on to fading realities, promising to keep them respirated, only to have them disintegrate in more painful ways than they could have imagined — stubborn resolve turned to ash and falling through their fingers.
God’s call is better. Yes, it will be longingly painful to bid farewell to my beloved season, but I know the promise of life in the seasons ahead is one He always keeps. It is a promise He will keep for you too.
There is more life, more water, more hope, more than you can imagine on the other side of winter. You must let go of this season in order to see it. You can do it. I will too. His call is higher, sweeter, and there is more!
Think about this…
- Can you think of a time you tried so hard to hold onto a season, but it ended up changing or dying anyway?
- Is there any area of life where you feel stuck? What might God be calling you to change?
- Ask Holy Spirit if there is more God has for you on the other side of winter. Write down or draw what He gives you.
Dear one, you can trust the heart of the Father to lead your through each season. There is always more.
You were made for change. You were created to live a life of calling!