Seasons Change

It was my senior year in high school and Seasons Change was my theme song.  What lay beyond graduation seemed like a very different season, and I needed the reminder often.

I see a farmer in his field at dawn
His land is crying out for rain
The year's been hard, his crops are almost gone
But he is not to blame

The morning sun is climbing in the sky
I see him smiling through the tears
I wonder how can men like this survive
But he's been here for years

Seasons change, barren fields will bloom again
Seasons change, gentle rains will fall
Seasons change, better days will come and then
You will find the blessing is worth the pain
So just believe and let the seasons change

I see a farmer in his field at dusk
With joy he bring a harvest in
The pride he feels is in the One he trusts
And he offers thanks to Him

~ ~ ~

I started college and I was studying agriculture and how perfect was that?  Farmers know about seasons.  Their lives, their livelihoods are entwined with the seasons.  Ignore seasons and farming is not possible.

The seasons each have their own work.  There are seasons for planting, seasons for cultivating, and seasons for harvest.  There are seasons to buy livestock, to breed livestock, to sell livestock.  A farmer can neither rush the seasons nor hold on to them.  He moves, he works with them.  He is not in control.  A farmer - a successful one - simply does what is supposed to be done in each season.

Seasons change.  That is life.

I learned about the seasons, their work, their crops, their harvest-rewards.  I wrote papers.  I watched two years worth of seasons go by as I studied.

I saw many correlations between farming and God's work in our lives: they come in seasons.

But while I listed soybeans, corn, wheat, oats and rattled off their unique crop cycles, I hadn't learned confidence in God's timing in my life.

You planted so that your crops would have time to mature and the harvest would be ready before the winter.  I didn't question that.  Who would?  It would be a foolish farmer to plant whenever he felt like it, and disregard what he could not change: the seasons.

But when God ushered in a new season in my life, I liked to hold on to the last one.  Other times, I grew discontent with where I was and tried to hurry on to the next thing.  I didn't like the seasons.  Change is unpleasant - that was my general sentiment.  Although I enjoyed spring, summer, fall, winter, when it came to life's seasons, I had not learned to appreciate the beauty to be found in each.

But there is.  There is beauty in each season of our lives because we have a good God who brings the seasons and who "makes all things beautiful in His time." (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

I can't change the seasons, can't rush them along, can't hold on to the ones I like.  I am not in control.  But I like to be, and sometimes I choose to ignore the blessings of my current season because I'm fretting over another one...past, future, or purely hypothetical.

Foolish.

A wise farmer does what each season calls for.  He lets the seasons change.  So I can choose wisdom: to faithfully do what God has put in front of me at this time, trust Him, and let the seasons change.  Let Him change my seasons.

In letting, I can find joy.  Peace.  Fullness.

Seasons change
Barren fields will bloom again
Seasons change
Gentle rains will fall
Seasons change
Better days will come and then
You will find the blessing
Is worth the pain
So just believe
And let the seasons change