A New Season

I had a birthday last week and let me tell you, I love birthdays. I don’t just love my own either, I love everyone’s birthday and celebrating them! This year though, I turned 30. To me, it was a normal birthday despite what age I was turning. However, lots of people kept reminding me about how old I was. Most of them were just friends and family joking around and it was all in good fun. But there was one person who went into great detail about how I should be depressed since I wasn’t in my 20’s anymore and my best years were behind me. I laughed them off and told them they were crazy. Their statement did make me think though and Ecclesiastes 3 popped into my head. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Sure, I loved my 20’s and I made several friends who I cherish and love during this time. I attended a great university and worked for ESPN. I met my husband and got married in my 20s and I wouldn’t change a moment of that. BUT I DON’T WANT TO GO BACK. Along with the amazing things that happened in my twenties, there was also hard times. Money was in short supply and I had a lot of growing up to do. The stress of paying bills, working nonstop and learning how to live on my own was, at many times, overwhelming. I am so thankful for parents who were there when I needed them but that also knew the importance of letting me fall on my face and figure out how to pick myself up. The season of my 20s was a growth season and growing hurts! But God never forsake me, he provided me with a help mate that stood by my side and I by his. We both guided each other down our paths. I took detours in my 20s, I hit road blocks and I ate a lot of ramen noodle. I cried and prayed more times than I can remember, but I never gave up. I always thanked God for what I had and strived to be content with where I was in my season.

Roman’s 5:3-5  More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

 You see, when you are content with where you are, that’s when the magic happens. Being content does not mean you sit down and you quit working towards a bigger and better goal. It means that you don’t complain, gripe and moan about your situation. Instead, you pray, thank God and work hard to reach the light at the end of the tunnel. If the children of Israel would have been content on the path God was leading them and would have thanked God for what he brought them out of, they wouldn’t have wandered aimlessly for 40 years.

Philippians 4:11-12 Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to wander through my life without a purpose for 40 years. I found my purpose in my 20s and I am now living it out at 30. I am so blessed with the life I am living right now. I have a great job and so does my husband. We both can afford things we have always wanted. We are closer to each other and closer to God than ever before. We aren’t under constant stress and pressure. Sure, we still face trials and conflicts but we have the faith and understanding to make it through them because of what we have gone through. God is faithful and he will see you through whatever season you are in. Continue to thank him for what he has already done and trust him to lead you forward. There will be mountains, canyons and paths that look impassable, but when you make it to the other side and are basking in the sun of his promises, it’ll all be worth it! I am not the same person I was in my twenties. I have changed, stretched and grown. You too will be changed after you have emerged on the other side of your season.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.