Life moves in seasons.
There is a season for beginning, a season for growing, a season for waiting, a season for losing, a season for rebuilding, and a season for harvesting.
One of the greatest sources of frustration in life is expecting every season to look the same.
We sometimes want the joy of harvest during the season of planting. We want answers during the season of waiting. We want visibility during the season of preparation. We want abundance when life is teaching us contentment.
But every season has its own assignment.
A tree does not produce fruit every day, yet it remains alive. There are times when its branches are filled with leaves, and there are times when some leaves fall. The falling leaves do not mean the tree has died. Sometimes, the tree is simply preparing for another season.
The same can happen in human life.
There are seasons when everything seems to move quickly. Doors open, relationships flourish, opportunities multiply, and prayers appear to receive immediate answers.
Then another season comes.
Things become slower. Some people leave. Certain opportunities disappear. Plans are delayed. You begin to wonder whether you have lost your direction.
But a quiet season is not necessarily a wasted season.
Sometimes God does His deepest work in seasons when very little appears to be happening.
A farmer understands this better than most people. After planting, he cannot keep digging up the seed every morning to check whether it is growing. He must trust the process beneath the soil.
There are things happening beneath your visible circumstances that you may not yet have the capacity to see.
THE STORY OF THE TWO SEASONS: AMAM-IHE AND IGBADO-ANYA
An old man called Amam-ihe meaning wisdom once took his grandson Igbad-anya meaning observation to a farm during the dry season.
The boy looked at the field and said, Grandfather, this place looks dead.
The old man smiled and said, It only looks dead because you are judging it by the season you can see.
The boy did not understand.
Months later, the rains came. The same field that had looked empty became green. Seeds that had been hidden beneath the soil began to appear. Eventually, the field was filled with crops.
The old man took the boy back to the farm and said, Now you understand.
The boy nodded.
The old man continued, Never judge the entire life of a field by one season.
That statement carries a lesson for life.
Never judge your entire journey by one difficult chapter.
A season of waiting does not mean you will wait forever.
A season of failure does not mean your life is a failure.
A season of loneliness does not mean you will always be alone.
A season of weakness does not mean strength will never return.
A season of obscurity does not mean your purpose has disappeared.
Some seasons are preparing you for what another season will reveal.
ECCLESIASTES 3:1
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
This scripture reminds us that life has appointed times.
There are things that cannot be forced before their season.
You cannot harvest what you have not planted.
You cannot demand maturity from something that is still developing.
You cannot always understand a season while you are inside it.
Sometimes understanding comes only after you have passed through it.
THREE LESSONS FROM THE SEASONS OF LIFE
- DO NOT DESPISE YOUR CURRENT SEASON
Every season has something to teach you.
If you are in a season of waiting, learn patience.
If you are in a season of growth, learn discipline.
If you are in a season of abundance, learn gratitude.
If you are in a season of difficulty, learn endurance.
If you are in a season of transition, learn flexibility.
The question should not always be, When will this season end?
Sometimes the better question is, What is this season trying to teach me?
- DO NOT COMPARE YOUR SEASON WITH ANOTHER PERSON’S SEASON
One person’s harvest may be another person’s planting season.
One person may be building while another is resting.
One may be receiving an opportunity while another is being prepared for one.
Comparison becomes dangerous when we use somebody else’s season to condemn our own.
Your journey has its own timing.
You do not need to become discouraged because someone else appears to be ahead of you.
The fact that another person is flourishing today does not mean that your story has ended.
- TRUST GOD THROUGH THE CHANGE OF SEASONS
Seasons change.
The night eventually gives way to morning.
The dry season eventually gives way to rain.
Winter eventually gives way to spring.
The same God who is with you in abundance is with you in scarcity.
The same God who is present when the door opens is present when the door remains closed.
Your circumstances may change, but God’s faithfulness does not have to change with them.
Isaiah 43:19 says:
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it?
Sometimes the new thing begins quietly.
Sometimes it begins while you are still grieving what has ended.
Sometimes you do not recognize the beginning because you are still looking at the ending.
But seasons change.
WHAT YOU SHOULD REMEMBER
Do not permanently define yourself by a temporary season.
Your present condition is not necessarily your final destination.
The chapter you are reading today is not the whole book of your life.
If you are planting, keep planting.
If you are waiting, keep trusting.
If you are growing, keep growing.
If you are healing, give yourself time.
If you are rebuilding, do not be ashamed of starting again.
If you are harvesting, remain humble and remember the season that prepared you for the fruit.
Life moves in seasons, but every season has a purpose.
Some seasons give you fruit.
Some give you roots.
Some give you lessons.
Some give you strength.
And some prepare you for the person you must become before the next door opens.
PRAYER
Lord, give me wisdom to understand the season I am in.
Teach me not to despise seasons of waiting, difficulty, transition, or preparation.
Give me patience when I cannot see the result, courage when I must begin again, humility when I experience abundance, and faith to trust You through every changing season.
Help me to recognize what You are doing in my life, even when the evidence is not yet visible.
May every season of my life fulfil its divine purpose.
Amen.
AUTHOR’S REFLECTION
Do not fight every season because it does not look like the season you desire.
Some seasons are not meant to stay.
They are meant to prepare you.
Life moves in seasons, and wisdom is knowing how to live faithfully in each one.
