Seasons

I've been doing a lot of thinking about seasons lately. Those of you who know me, probably know that my favorite season is autumn. I love the changing leaves, the crisp air, post-season baseball, and my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, is in the fall. My least favorite season? Summer. Yes now that I work for a school, I get a break, but it is just so HOT. Autumn brings the changing leaves and cooler weather,  winter brings (hopefully) snow, and spring brings new things blooming and thunderstorms. When I think about the actual weather of summer, all I come up with is hot. This year we had a pretty mild winter in Oklahoma. We never really got a good snow storm, and it was not really all that cold for very long. I felt almost like we just skipped right over the season. I found myself thinking "Why couldn't we have done this with summer? I would much rather be in sub zero temperatures than triple digits!" Alas, that is not how it works. But then I realized life is a lot like this too. 

We all have seasons in our life. Seasons of jobs, ministry, places where we live. Typically, I like changing seasons in my life. Even though they are scary, new things excite me. Right now, however, I'm in kind of a weird place. I have several things in my life, several seasons, that are coming to an end. The difference this time though, is I don't know what comes next. Usually when I end something, it's because I'm moving on to something else. That isn't the case this time around, for any of the big seasons that are ending. I was talking to one of my good friends about this and I said something along the lines of "I feel like all these seasons are ending and I don't know which one is coming next. Like I'm stuck between seasons." But I was thinking about it later and realized that isn't really true. This is my season. It may be a season of doubt, and uncertainty, but it is a season. It's summer. I was in spring, a season that I enjoyed but was not necessarily my all time favorite, and I'm looking forward to autumn, a season that will hopefully be even better, but summer does exist. 

Now, I'm not a complete pessimist. There are things about summer that I LOVE. Baseball is in full swing, you get to grill out a lot more often, swimming pools are open, the sun is out longer. These are all things I enjoy and look forward to during the summer. I'm finding this "summer" season of my life is no different. It is a season of faith. It is a season where I am completely and totally relying on God to show me what's next. I'm having faith that He will provide, exactly what I need, when I need it. This season has also been good in other ways. I have a lot more time right now. Time to recharge. Time to flesh out scenes that were driving me crazy, and keep exploring the characters in my new work in progress. Time to hang out with people without a timeline hovering over us. Time to actually enjoy the pool and the sunshine. For the most part, I have a peace about this season in my life. A peace I know only comes from Christ. So while sometimes all I can think about is how hot summer is, I can remember that there is a good baseball game coming on soon. And while sometimes all I can think about is the fact that I have no idea what my life will look like in the next few months, I can remember that I've already read nine books this summer, and I still have more to start. God is in all things, and He uses all things, even, and sometimes especially, summer.