We get stuck in seasons of difficulty.
Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. 2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. 3 I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
- Psalm 69:1-3
These seasons have been described as “Walls” or “Dark Nights of the Soul.”
When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven — there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Love — the word — it brings nothing. I am told God loves me — and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul…
- Mother Teresa
Seasons come and go.
13 But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness. 14 Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters. 15 Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me.
- Psalm 69:13-15
There’s nothing we can do to change the seasons.
We can adapt to the current season.
We can prepare for the coming season.
We trust God to change the season when it’s time, and to change us at the same time.
“I have come to love the darkness. For I believe that it is a part, a very small part, of Jesus’ darkness and pain on earth.”
- Mother Teresa
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
- James 1:2-4