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Seasons

 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (II Corinthians 5:17)

This verse came to mind last night as I contemplated and prayed about the shifts that are taking place in my life. I suspect most of us think of this as a one time thing. We accept Christ and become this new thing called “a Christian.” Once that’s done, that’s done. Oh, we may learn more of what it means along the way, but the new is done, or at best, it’s sporadic, like those “darkest valleys” mentioned yesterday.

Like those darkest valleys, however, I suspect “new” is ubiquitous. New in Christ is new in a specific direction, but we all face new or can be new far more often than we might think. We can go to the same places and see the same people but respond better (or worse! Either way is new.)

We may not notice it until (like the nasty wolf of yesterday) it’s in our faces, but it’s in us and growing. As C. S. Lewis put it, we’re either becoming something people might be tempted to worship or something from their worst nightmares all the time, with every thought and action, and each step is new, even if we don’t notice it.  But when we do notice, it can either be exciting because we like the direction, or frightening because it may require that we die to ourselves or change our ways. The only real difference is our attitude about it.

I’ve read about seasonality in the past. If I remember correctly, one author said that our seasons (like those in nature) often involve growth, nurture(?), harvest, and rest. Unfortunately, while one season follows another, in our lives we may find Brandon Sanderson’s seasonality more realistic. Rest/death may follow growth and seem to take years. Then suddenly, we get ten minutes of spring and a year of summer before it’s spring again. Then it’s rest without harvest, and harvest without growth. I think it’s more cyclical than that, but it seems chaotic.

At the same time, I paid attention to that more this past spring and summer than I have. I was somewhat prepared to start harvesting some flowers and herbs almost before winter was over. Read this paragraph more than once because there’s wisdom here. You can be in different seasons in different parts of your life all at the same time. Your “dandelions” and “violas” may be ready to harvest while your seedlings are just sprouting. You can plant in some areas of your life in the spring and fall. Some things need to be planted during the autumn to grow in the spring.

So, the best advice I’m trying to get through my thick skull is that we can learn skills and patterns to help us in each season. The first step is to learn the patterns that let us know (better than a calendar) when each season is about to begin. As I try to figure this out, you may be hearing a lot about seasons.

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