I grew up near the coast of Texas, so my experience of shifting seasons was limited – more of a change in calendar than weather or landscape or apparel. We basically went from hot to really hot to a little cooler. The grass and Live Oak trees stayed green year-round, so I didn’t fully understand the truer variations of seasons until the year my husband and I moved our family from the ‘tropics’ of south Texas to the ‘arctic’ of central Oklahoma.
Over the course of a two-day drive, we had quite the introduction to a seasonal transition. We’d left Corpus Christi in shorts only to drive right into Snowy Winter. Living in Oklahoma is where I finally saw – and felt – each seasonal change in color and clothing, in temperature and temperament.
With such revelation came a deeper understanding; we encounter spiritual seasons just as we do nature’s.1 Sometimes we crash right into seasons that change life abruptly and significantly – much like the collision of cold and warm air on a spring day that turns the skies black, causing the winds to twist their way into our lives. With brutal force, nothing is left the same. Trees are toppled. Homes are leveled. And that unsettled season drags on.
Other times, we see hints of the changing season coming. Like leaves fluttering from the trees of early autumn, we get glimpses of life-seasons coming-in for a big change. And we brace ourselves. Or, like green tulip leaves breaking through the cold ground of early spring, we get glimpses of newness, of new life. And hope rises!
No matter how we’ve come to be in our current season or what we see hovering on the horizon, we can’t change any season by sheer force of will; however, we do get to choose how to respond while we’re in it. We can run, hide. Defer, deny. Stomp, stew. Or we can embrace it by looking to Jesus – the One who holds all the grace we need in order to give Him our burdens, to see God at work around us, and to make room for what God has in store.
Grace for the Seasons That Catch Us by Surprise
In Oklahoma, weather turns on a dime. I’ll never forget the time our neighborhood gathered for a large egg hunt one spring, sunshiny afternoon. All the basket-bearing children ran through the budding grass when, without warning, a harsh wind hurtled itself across our little prairie of a school yard, tossing eggs and chairs like matchsticks. Within minutes, our pleasant playtime weather plummeted thirty degrees. Winter was back.
Life can blindside us even more violently at times. With no heads-up, our world flips upside-down, and we’re left with few options. Most often these out-of-the-blue life storms happen to us individually or within a single family. But sometimes churches are slammed with salacious situations, entire communities are traumatized by violence, or the whole world gets walloped by a pandemic.
Seasons can change in an instant, but once the dust settles and the shock wears off, we long for a way through all the upheaval and heaviness. We may try exerting our own control. We might put a mask on, expressing to all who ask – things are ‘fine’. “I’m fine.” When in reality we have no control and nothing about our circumstances or our hearts is fine.
Sometimes we move through each day resigned to all that we face and feel, perched on a precarious precipice that threatens to give way at any moment. Then there are seasons where we simply give up because it all seems so helpless – and hopeless. And while all of these are legitimate emotions when our worlds get tousled or turned inside-out, Jesus has another way.
Him! He is our Truth. Our Life. Our Way.
When He says that His burden is light, He means it (Matthew 11:28-30). He died so that we don’t ever have to navigate the blazing heat or the brutal cold alone. He lives again so that we have Someone on whom to hang all our hopes, the One who holds everything all together (Colossians 1:17).
In Christ all of creation is held together, and that means He holds us in His hands. He holds us together when we are falling apart, when our circumstances – and our hearts – are shattered into a million pieces.
When everything in us begs God to take us out of the season, out of the situation, we’re better served to draw nearer to God. To ask Holy Spirit to help us to keep moving forward by faith. To believe that our hope is not in our circumstances changing but in Christ alone.
And the source of all our looking to Jesus, hanging onto Jesus, putting our hope in Jesus? Grace! Grace is the power we need to keep approaching God’s throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive the grace we need (Hebrews 4:16).
Friends, we may not have seen the season we’re currently in hurtling toward us, but nothing surprises God about where we find ourselves. “He knows all, does all: He changes the seasons and guides history” (Daniel 2:20 MSG). And that means God has a plan. He will even have purpose – for His glory and our good. The God who never changes is the One we cling to when our circumstances do. His grace is enough for everything we face and feel.
Grace for the Seasons We See Coming
Then there are seasons we see looming before us. The rebellious child headed for a train wreck. A wedding or a new baby’s arrival. A move across the country or the launch of a long-awaited career. Seasons of waiting can hold us in the tension of excitement and terror – all at the same time. They can also be our source of hope for new life during a long season of darkness.
However long the waiting may be, though, God doesn’t want us to miss what He has for us in the moment. He knows all the ways anticipation of change can rob the goodness, even the joys, He has for us in the here-and-now.
In my most recent season of waiting for big life-changes I could see coming, what helped me most – in the day-to-day of hanging onto grace’s power and goodness – was noticing God. Seeing the ways He was at work. Hearing the words of encouragement He sent. Embracing the gifts that came only because the waiting stretched well beyond what I’d expected or wanted.
Looking for God keeps our focus on Him rather than our circumstances. When our eyes aren’t flooded with images of what might be, we are better able to notice all the ways God reaches out to us with His sustaining grace – right now.2
Taking it a step further, while it’s important that we name our seasons, it’s equally imperative that we don’t get so swept up in our circumstances that we miss a holy work of God. Pastor Jon Tyson challenges us to recognize our propensity of allowing our “personal season to dictate the divine season.”3 In other words, we can be so distracted by all the challenges and changes that we impose on God our assumptions about that season, failing to give grace room to do its work in us and through us. Pastor Tyson exhorts us to “own our season” but not so much so that we limit God.3
And most often that ‘divine season’ only becomes visible with hindsight. When I look back on my recent season of awaiting change, I can now see how it gave me time to get my heart ready for all the ‘new’. My clinging to the grace God poured out enabled me to wait with hope. In fact, I now see that my season of waiting was, in fact, one of preparation. Admittedly, I didn’t see all that waiting as a ‘divine season’ at the time. But the longer I live out my days in my current place, the more I see how God worked then. And I’m even more grateful for the grace He extended so that I didn’t spin off into my own orbit of attempted control.
Ultimately, our search for God should never stop. He has much to show us about where we are and what we’re experiencing. He longs for us to embrace His grace so that we don’t attach the wellness of our souls to the goodness of our circumstances.4 And He desires to do a deep, divine work – whether we realize it at the time or not.
Friends, no matter the kind of season we find ourselves in, we can take hope in the fact that seasons, by nature, change. However long your winter feels right now, spring is coming!
Some of us find ourselves in a season of crisp, fruitful, sunny days; we’re meant to embrace every moment of it, refusing to let the anxiety of ‘what’s to come’ steal our joy. God has gifted us a season of goodness, so we’re to receive it with all the grace it brings!
For most of us, our current season is more than likely not all dark-valley’ish nor all butterflies and rainbows – but a mix of both. In the same moment we can hold grief and joy together, enjoying laughter with dear friends even as the tears flow.
I’m discovering this must be what God means by embracing every day for what it holds – because every day is the day He has made (Psalm 118:24). It’s why He tells us not to worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). His presence is with us in the here-and-now, right where we should be.
The writer of Ecclesiastes encourages us with the truth that there is a season for everything (3:1-8). So when we get blindsided by a season we didn’t see coming, we look to the One who is not surprised, who never changes (Malachi 3:6). When we see a seasonal change headed our way – whether we look forward to it or not – we put our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), noticing what He is saying and doing so that our hope is always in Him. So that His grace can do its work of carrying us through every season.
May we embrace the inevitability of changing seasons – with faith, not fear.
May we choose to respond with faith and hope no matter what we face or how we feel.
May we draw near to God and trust that He is with us in it all.
May we notice God, looking for how He’s moving, listening for what He’s saying.
May we remain in the moment God has given us, believing that His grace will always be enough – for what today holds and what tomorrow will bring.
And may we find true rest and God’s joy by trusting Him in every season.
Father God, thank You for preparing us for the reality that seasons change and that You dwell in every moment of every season with us, holding us, carrying us, guiding us. We confess that too often we get caught up in the worry of what’s to come and miss what You have for us in the here-and-now. We desire to mature in our responses to life, to our circumstances, to the changes we’re experiencing or anticipating. Lord Jesus, how encouraged we are to know that You died so that we can have life abundant. You LIVE so that we can die to our fears and doubts. Today we choose to set our minds on things above, to fix our eyes on You, so that we might have clear sight to notice all that God is doing in our midst, in the moment. Holy Spirit, we ask that even when we cannot sense or see God at work that You would build our faith so that we will put our hope in Christ alone in every single season. Help us to embrace the personal season we’re living in now and to believe that our unchanging God walks with us and wills for us to trust in the plans and purposes of His divine season. Whether we understand now or not, we put our whole hope in Him. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
(Daniel 2:20; Ecclesiastes 3:1-8; Psalm 23; Matthew 6:34; John 10:10; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:2; Hebrews 12:2; Jude 1:20; Malachi 3:6; 2 Corinthians 5:7)
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – In her gorgeous, grace-filled book, Gracelaced,^ Ruth Chou Simons paints beautiful pictures with her words and art about what she calls “heart seasons.” She organizes her book with lovely nods to each natural season, connecting them to seasons we live through emotionally, spiritually. There is not another book I could recommend more on seeing and experiencing God’s grace in the midst of our actual life-seasons. (At the time of this writing, the book is on sale at Amazon for nearly half-off!!)
- 2 – I’ve added two songs to our playlist, Embracing Grace. The first is a most beloved, meaningful song by Nichole Nordeman, “Every Season,” that ingeniously moves through all four natural seasons in tandem with life seasons. And her main point through it all is to keep noticing God – “I notice You when change begins and I am braced for colder winds; I will offer thanks for what has been and what’s to come.” “Still I notice You when branches crack and in my breath on frosted glass; even now in death, You open doors for life to enter.” In my own recent experience, keeping my eyes and ears peeled for God is what kept me anchored in Him – when everything in me wanted to give into the spirals of fear and doubt. The second song is less familiar but no less powerful. Hillsong Worship’s “Seasons” puts image-filled lyrics to a powerful tune meant to evoke our faith and hope in God. Enjoy!
- 3 – Jon Tyson on Annie F. Downs’ podcast, That Sounds Fun on 4/7/25.
- 4 – JD Walt in the commentary of his audio recording of the Wake Up Call on 6/11/25.
- Each Wednesday I upload a “Teacup” teaching video that carries on the topic here. You can find all the videos on my Facebook Author Page, Instagram, and YouTube.
- Many of you have found me on Substack. Thank you so much! And, if you’d like to listen to (rather than read) these weekly posts, you can do so on Substack, as well. It’s easy to see and use the audio bar across the top of each post. While you’re on Substack, check out the ministry I’m blessed to be part of, the Devoted Collective.
- My monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life, goes to email inboxes the first week of each month to those who have subscribed on my website. I also post them on Substack. My most recent edition can be found there, and you can subscribe for future newsletters on Substack, here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is one way to aid us in our desire to become more Christlike. There’s nowhere better to know Christ than in His Word, so throughout this series, we’ll grab hold of one passage each week and embrace the rhythm of starting our day with God and His Word every morning.
- This week our passage is Hebrews 4:16. It so succinctly and beautifully imparts facets of grace — our God of grace giving us grace. We can go to Him because of grace in order to receive the grace He has for us. It sounds a bit circular, but as we continue to unpack the layers and purposes of grace, I pray we’re grasping that grace isn’t a one-and-done thing. It’s ongoing. Always needed. So…
“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” — Hebrews 4:16 - We’re all called to share the truths about the work of Jesus. One way you can do that is by sharing this site and telling others your own stories of faith experiences. Believe it or not, we worship God each time we share our stories of faith! We use our whole selves to tell about our holy God!!
Featured Photo by Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” Photo by Arjun Kapoor on Unsplash.
^Denotes an affiliate link, with which this ministry earns a bit to help it keep going. 😉
