Swung the door open on Sunday, expecting normal late summer Texas weather, only to be shocked by a cool breeze. Fall arrived right on time. I ran back inside telling everyone to plan to spend the day outside. Our week of fall was here and you don’t want to waste it.
I have the same sense that a new season is blowing into my life.
My two oldest children have left the nest and only the youngest chickadee remains. College tours and the stress of waiting to receive acceptance letters is still ahead of us, but I feel the breeze of a change in seasons.
My friends talk about retirement, financial plans and how they want to spend their after work years. And a breeze ruffles my hair reminding me a change of seasons is coming.
Ecclesiastes 3
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace. (NIV)
A question arises from this thought. What purpose will my empty nest years serve. This new season follows years of secular work in business and lay work in churches; years of babies, children and teens, and years of mistakes and sound decisions.
I traveled with my Lord through a season of needing forgiveness and a season of His teaching me to forgive myself. What a wild season. It followed a season of pain that I brought on myself. He didn’t just heal me. The Lord took me on an exciting trip where He taught me he acts in our world today. He taught me to listen to his voice. (I slip away at times, but I have never ever again doubted He is out there and cares about my day to day). God taught me walking with Him can be fun.
We traveled together through a season when He gave me an advance education regarding letting go of fear. He showed me that fear highlights an area where I have not given something over to God. That summer every where I went and everything I read dealt with one topic. I didn’t seek out this education. He chose it for me. We worked through how fear results from idols in our lives. Peace comes when we trust God even accepting the loss of what we love. I had to learn to daily give what matter most to me over to God. I actually would awake in the morning and place everything important on the altar before God as a symbolic way to remind myself it belonged to God. Man is it hard to not take things back off that altar.
Now, I get hints of a new journey God wants me to take with Him. Just as with Fear, God keeps prodding me with the idea of Charity (Christian Love) and Mercy. My intuition tells me this journey is preparing me for the new season of life gently blowing into my life over the next few years.
Well, I am ready. I don’t want to waste this season as I have wasted some seasons in the past.
Fourth Day Adventures 