WHEN YOU FACE NEW SEASON

You’ve anticipated this day. As your season wanes, ebbing into the uncharted change which lies ahead, the shoreline gives way to the first hints of ocean. You’ve become increasingly aware of both the loss of the known and the openness of the unexplored horizon before you.

Perhaps you arrive at this place war-torn, smeared in regrets, injured by abuse, or deflated by defeat. Like a mirage in the desert, your anticipation was more a parched hope and your trek a last effort – a clawing crawl on your belly. You made it!

Perhaps you find yourself here at the edge of the new, your soul overflowing from a wonderful season, your arms still bursting with its riches, so your eyes keep drifting back to what’s now behind you. You vacillate in the face of uncertainty.

Few are here, un-entangled by the past, completely free to step forward with open arms and an uncluttered heart. If you are such a one, stop and give thanks.

Regardless, here you are.
For what it’s worth, I’m right next to you. Yesterday was my Day One. The last school day signaled the close of a 19-year old lifestyle where children and their education was central. I loved it. I also struggled under the often conflicting demands between the school’s inflexible calendar and and the spontaneous nature of ministry. Like driving between two radio stations, sometimes staccato demands of my responsible to-do list, sometimes soulful melodies of life were my soundtrack, and in between, a lot of static. Looking ahead, I long for music to give my responsibilities wings, conflict replaced by concert.

Here’s what I am learning:

Focus on what’s constant.

“Your Word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens” (Psalm 119:89 ).
In familiar territory, that’s easy to dismiss, but when the ground is shaking or the
sand erodes beneath your feet, you need to know that there is immovable Rock undergirding your life.
If the Bible is foreign to you, now may be the best time to discover its steadfastness.
If it is familiar, but not pulsing in your veins, shake off the indifference and inject it into your bloodstream.
Read it, sing it, remember it, till it sings over you at night, the voice of the Unchanging Lover
of your soul, till your feet dance confidently to its rhythm on this foreign soil of your life, firmly established in His Word.

2 Seek Him for purpose.

“The singers were under the king’s orders, which regulated their daily activity.” (Nehemiah 11:23, NIV)
Confusion about priorities is like the shrill noise when your antenna bounces between
different frequencies . As nature abhors a vacuum, so the open space before you absorbs
all kinds of voices and agendas. Which ones are good? Which ones are better? Which ones are right? How do you know the difference?
Limited in so many ways, we can’t possibly possess the wisdom to separate the essential
from the inessential, the good from the best, the plan from the distraction.
Before you are swept up in tides of activity, time-fillers or time-stealers, seek Him who is
outside of time. Only He can separate the static from the unique song in your soul which is beautifully different from anyone else’s.

“Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.”
(Psalms 139:16)

3. Write it down.

“Now therefore, write down this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel;
put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for Me…” (Deuteronomy 31:19)
You will need this song, His strategy for your next season, in writing. If you don’t, you will
lose it in the noise. Loud needs, loud opinions, loud emotions naturally overpower His quiet
voice, breathed over you in sacred times of seeking Him. He allows it., but He calls you to
His super-natural wisdom. Precious and rare, protect it by writing it down for yourself and your children – that your song may be a witness for Him.
Once you know what your priorities are, allow Him to give you specific instructions. Perhaps
you laugh or scoff, as I did when a schedule like this first assaulted my ‘free spirit.’ But I’ve
learned and am still discovering just what a difference it makes, translating abstract ideas to a concrete action plan. Rather than choking your song, it frees it.

When you and your soul’s Musician claim certain times for Him and His plan for you, just as claiming land in the Wild West, these times cannot be claimed by others. Not only does writing it down enable you to protect it from invaders, it also shows you where unclaimed time is found.

Gaze into your next season, and see His hand beckoning you forward. Turn down the noises around you and hear His song:

“The Lord your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”
(Zephaniah 3:17)