Change is here to stay! Walking along a footpath about a week before the end of August, I spotted some suspiciously autumnal looking leaves on the ground.
Whilst they were pretty, and I love the colours of autumn, my instinctive reaction was a wail of, “No, not yet!”. I didn’t feel ready for autumn. I wanted to linger in the long days where there is lots of light, beautiful flowers everywhere; when it is warmer and we can get out more, especially in the wilds of Scotland! I lament the loss of the bits I love about the summer, whilst simultaneously looking forward to the bits of autumn and winter I like; although not the cold!
Isn’t that how it is with any kind of change? Even if we look forward to it [as it seems some of my friends are looking forward to the “cosy nights of autumn and winter” and getting back into thick jumpers, coats, and hats – crazy, right?! 😉], we can simultaneously feel sad about what is being left behind.
As I pondered my response, I felt nudged by Holy Spirit. I remembered the verse in Daniel 2:21 that begins:
He changes times and seasons…
I found myself praying, acknowledging that He could decide when autumn started and He was not bound by our earthly calendar. He could make it be a month long autumn and straight into winter for 5 months if He chose. I would rather he didn’t but He is God and the seasons, the times, are set by Him. The seasons, the weather, it all submits to Him, and not to my preference. I know, prayer can impact things about time, there is biblical precedent for that, but it is the exception not the rule!
We are reminded by the writer of Ecclesiastes in chapter 3 verses 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.
As I walked, on my way to office work through the park, I contemplated the seasons of our lives. How often do we try to hold on to a season that is coming to an end? Or conversely, like many of us when the cold, dark, wet of winter seems to drag, how often do we want to rush through a season?
I wonder what “time” you are in right now. It may be that more than one of those times in Ecclesiastes resonated with where you are. I have had a few conversations recently with people who are, shall we say, in the winter of their lives. They are lamenting the slower pace, the fact that their body does not do what it once did and the restrictions that are a consequence of that. There is a letting go of some of the things they once did and that can be hard, incredibly hard. No longer being independent and able to drive, or do things for themselves. There is a genuine sense of loss.
Then there are those who are going through a season that feels like being hit by the extreme temperatures of this summer, or the flooding of recent storms, or even earthquakes or typhoons. It can feel overwhelming, one hit after another, barely able to draw breath. It can be disorientating, overwhelming, and exhausting. It can tip our lives upside down. There is a loss of stability, a loss of the sense of familiarity and comfort that so often contributes to our feelings of security, the feeling of being ‘in control’.
Sometimes, like snow in summer, in the midst of haymaking season (which I have experienced growing up on a farm in Cumbria, in the north of England), it feels totally inexplicable, wrong, “out of season”, and can bring confusion and chaos. Those do not feel like fun seasons. Just look at the book of Job and the time he went through. Out of nowhere.
Every single change we go through, big or small, involves a letting go of some things as we embrace what is new, even if it is a good change like a new baby or a new job. There is a kind of grief to be navigated in change, whether it is changed relationships, changed environments, changed mindsets or habits, changed abilities and capacities. There is a lament that is absolutely not wrong. Even when we acknowledge that God is in the process of change and submit to him in it, it is not a lack of faith or rebellion to acknowledge and lament the loss of what we are letting go of. Change can feel very discombobulating, very unsettling.
I genuinely feel, as we have come through the last few weeks, like something is changing. As it says in one version of Song of Solomon 2:13
There is change in the air
I know we are transitioning from summer into autumn and there is natural change. However, it is in the atmosphere somehow, that sense of change coming. We don’t have to be very prophetically wired to think that. One look around at the globe, at the news, and it is obvious. However, like the men of Issachar talked about in 1 Chronicles 12:32, we can focus on God and be asking him about what he says about the time we are living in and what we are to do, in our personal lives but also corporately as a family, a church, a business, or other context. I can feel the sense of pressure, that does not come from God, to be driven, to be stressed, to feel a sense of ungodly fear. The media just now seems very full of fear and headlines that induce fear. Just as change is in the air, so is fear, so is panic, so is unsettledness and a reaction to the turbulence. So, Lord, help us to fix our eyes on you and be responsive to the change not reactive.
I have seen a lot of this sign as I have travelled about recently. And then last week this featured quite a bit on my travels
Pivoting involves changing direction around a point. In some ways it defines the act of repentance – a change in the way we think, the way we do life, which is intrinsic to our very faith. A pivot turns around a point, a place of stability. I think that God wants to change some things in ways that may feel uncomfortable but ultimately will bring freedom for us. I think God wants to change some things about the way we do church. I think that he wants to bring change in the earth as we partner with him in bringing about transformation wherever we are. Change is wired into our Christian experience so, as a friend of mine noted this last week,
Pivoting is pivotal!
‘Learning to pivot’ has become something of a mantra in the last week or two as I have navigated the various situations that did not go how I had planned. Travel plans that got completely tipped upside down, holiday plans that were upended by differing needs, and day-to-day plans that change according to what comes up. The fixed point of reference that holds me steady as I pivot is God. Through it all, as well as asking for grace as I ‘learn to pivot’, I am encouraged by how the enemy’s plans for my days are restricted, boundaried by God, according to Job 14:5
A person’s days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.
We think that maybe we are, or worse our enemy is, in charge but Proverbs 16:9 says differently.
Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.
God is ultimately in charge, as shown again here in Proverbs 19:21
We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.
That’s a relief actually because he knows more than I do! As I was thinking about this, I was reminded of a United Pursuit song I listened to on repeat through a difficult season of my life. You can listen to it here. The lyric that I was reminded of was simply:
Though the seasons change, your love remains.
This is our confidence, this is our pivot point that fixes us, steadies us. Just as He sets the rhythm of days and nights, monthly cycles of the moon, the rhythms of the seasons, the Bible tells us in quite a few places that the Lord has appointed times for certain events. Not only does He set the natural seasons, He sets our individual times and seasons too. Through it all our confidence is not just in the fact that He is the one who is in charge, but that He loves us and He knows what He is doing as He orchestrates everything.
Our confidence is that, even if we are not sure what is coming, not sure what the future holds, and are unsettled by the sense of change in the air, and the potential loss of familiarity and that deceptively comforting feeling of being in control because we know how things go, everything is actually OK because God is on the throne. He is not wobbled, worried, or uncertain. He knows the end from the beginning and he is supremely confident about the future.
A verse that I am revisiting as I ponder this season, and what it is and isn’t time for, according to the Ecclesiastes verses, and the pivot point in any change, is this in Isaiah 30:15
This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it.
Whatever else this season is about, it is (always) about returning to him as our source of hope and confidence, of peace and stability, of security and safety. He is our hiding place, our place of refuge. He is where we will feel safe. So the pivoting that I need to do first of all, in every circumstance that comes, is to pivot towards him. Repentance here is not about grovelling apologies, or trying harder, it is about relinquishing my self reliance and leaning in, allowing him to change the way I function, my mindsets and my places of security and self protection so they are rooted in him. As I choose to let go of my desire to be in control, to know all things, to understand all things, to have everything nailed down, secure so there are no nasty surprises, and as I rest in his ability to protect me, provide for me, keep me, then peace comes. The quietness and confidence, that results from that letting go, reminds me of Psalm 131 which describes becoming like a little child
calmed and quieted
That sounds like a wonderful state to be in as we navigate change – whether it be good or bad, welcome or not, in every area of our lives. Maybe then I will be able to recognise the signs of change without resistance, without dismay or fear, trusting that God has a plan and it is good.
In all of this, maybe it’s good revisit Psalm 91 and Psalm 46 as an antidote to any fear that is trying to take hold in the earth just now. My declaration has been a little song God gave me years ago from Psalm 63:7
Beneath the shadow of your wings, I sing …
So, maybe you would like to join me in singing as we learn to pivot with the change and as we contemplate the future from the security of the Father’s love that holds us safe! From the safety of his covering, from his loving arms, we can look forward with confidence and hope.
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