Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Waiting for a Change in Seasons


According to the calendar, September 23 is supposed to be the first day of fall this year. According to the forecast for my neck of the woods, September 23 is supposed to register a high in the low 90s. (If the calendar says it's fall but the outdoors doesn't look like or feel like fall, is it really fall?)

Fall is my favorite season of the year, perhaps anticipated so greatly due to what seem to be eternal summers. I love the cool crisp autumn air, the gorgeous show of leaves that are changing from green to gold and orange and red. Football and cappuccinos and all manner of things cooked in the crockpot are just better in the fall.

And so waiting for it can seem like agony. Especially when, according to the calendar, fall should be in full force. Sometimes it seems like these hot, humid summer days are never going to end.

A change in seasons, weather-wise, always reminds me of the changes of seasons of life that we go through. Believe me, I have been in seasons (and am still in some) that seem like they will never end. That's especially tough to deal with when by all outward appearances, I should be in a new season by now. And even harder when friends and family members and co-workers are in seasons that I want to be in.

Sometimes we know without a doubt that God is preparing us for a new season, but He just hasn't yet brought us that change and we don't know why. I think about people from the Bible who received promises from God but had to wait many, many years for them to be fulfilled. Abraham and Sarah had to wait 25 years for their promised son, Isaac, to be born. David was anointed king of Israel per God's command but then had to wait years before he could take the throne.

In the case of Abraham and Sarah, they tired of waiting and tried to "help" God along with His plan by having Abraham conceive a child with one of Sarah's handmaidens. That resulted in a world of trouble that continues to plague the Middle East even today. But I can understand their temptation to make things happen. Waiting is one of the hardest things we're called to do. Pretty much every time I've tried to make things happen they've blown up in my face, and you'd think that I would have learned my lessons by now. Yet I still struggle at times to wait peacefully.

The other day I glimpsed a tree whose leaves had begun to turn red. And we've had a few mornings lately when I've been able to make it from the parking lot to my office building without feeling drenched in sweat. These little signs give me hope that, yes, fall is indeed on its way.

I won't go to bed tonight in the summer heat and wake up tomorrow with fall in full swing (although how nice that would be!). The change in seasons doesn't happen overnight. As I wait, I'll continue to keep watching for signs of fall. And I'll continue to trust God to keep giving me signs of changes in my own seasons of life. Perhaps some change will be here before I know it.


2 comments:

Donna G said...

Just as our beloved Tide had to prepare all through the hot summer for the "season" to begin...we too must suffer through things that don't make sense just so we are ready to tackle that next thing when it is finally upon us....

I love football analogies....

Lisa said...

I love football analogies too...even more so when Bama's having a good season. :)