Seasons of the soul

There is no escaping change. We cannot stay in one place as one person forever. We may preserve images, record conversations, write memoirs, but life is change and movement.

Some of us have had seasons in which we witnessed God working in pretty spectacular ways. We have been in churches or conferences or retreats where there was an obvious movement of the Spirit. Church history is punctuated by accounts of revivals.

None of this lasts. Which is not some sad, cynical comment of human whims or passions. Or an indictment of God. Rather we echo what the ancient writer says about seasons. God is always at work: he doesn’t change. But the means and methods of his working does change. To demand God ‘do his stuff’ like he did some years ago or like he did in some other church is to deny him the right to work according to seasons.

Praise God he did wonderful things in our past. But let’s not lament that he is not doing precisely those things in the present. He is not a tame God. We don’t set the rules. He is free to work in quieter ways as well as exuberant ways. He is free to have us focus on another area of church or personal life rather than what he focussed on before.

How sad it would be if we missed out on what God is doing in this season by casting longing, lingering looks back at what he did in previous seasons. God moves on. Do we?

Blessings
David Reay