Fall, A Season of HOPE!

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. Ecclesiastes 3:1-3

Greetings friend, it fills my heart to know that you are on the other side of this screen just a minute beyond my reach. I’ve got to admit that this has been a hard week that has increased my gratitude for having a permission to pause not only as one who is sharing this journey with you, but one who is also on the journey. I just returned from an event I host a few times a year called “Rest Quest”.  It’s my personal pursuit of a deep understanding of rest; pause and rest and a sacred slowdown in my life that started about five years ago with a serious crash and burn. One that hit me physically, mentally, and spiritually. It was a clear indication of a life off-balance and one that was very very stuck.

That is what my desire is here and on my Podcast Permission to Pause. To help us find and pursue together a life of balance, a LIFE UNSTUCK! (If you haven’t read my book, it is right here!waiting for you!:))

Last post we started this little series of pausing to think about the different the seasons of our life—beyond the obvious physical—into spiritual and emotional—acknowledging that they do not always match up.

I was stirred in this topic as I prepared for this past Rest Quest, where a small group of women spent four days together considering these words in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. We each considered and shared our personal seasons and spent time seeking God for a deeper understanding and ability to embrace the seasons we were in.

That is what my intention is for us as we pause together over this topic for these next few weeks.I want to talk about the fall season of our spiritual and emotional life. As we look outside our windows, most of us are actually able to see the physical signs of fall across the earth.

Let’s look now at Ecclesiastes once again and focus on the word “Hope.”

If you’ve followed the Permission to Pause podcast, you may have heard in episode number 3 three when I offered you the word, “Selah.” I shared with you an encounter I had in the middle of fall in the great Smoky Mountains where I was off-roaded by a tiny car filled with a group of nuns. That encounter, in a gravel grounded roadside pull away, suddenly opened my eyes and my heart to the splendor of fall. It was as if I had never before experienced the blast of colors, the rustle of falling leaves in the breeze, and the coolness in the air.

I encourage you to take a minute today to consider the splendor of spiritual and emotional fall seasons in our lives. Fall is a season of letting things go. Of watching things, relationships, decisions fall away. As new things seem to be brewing fall is a season of heightened hope as we so cleary see CHANGE all around us—

So, let’s just quiet our hearts for a few minutes and ask God…

Where in my spiritual or emotional life am I in a season of fall?

Where is there a change in the air?

Or maybe do I sense a change coming?

Don’t conjure anything up here—despite roadside pumpkins, this may not be a spiritual season of fall right now for you. We will be looking at all of the seasons in the coming weeks so your pause today might be to seek God’s clarity about a season of fall in your past spiritual and emotional life.

Simply trust God’s leading in this moment of pause to consider the hope found in change.

The season in the past when you have watched God lead you through leaving some older, maybe no longer working things behind.

The hope in no longer carrying things that are not healthy or life giving.

There is always hope in listening, watching, and looking for any change that God is stirring.

Francine Rivers in her book, Earth Songs: Reflections on How God Speaks Through Nature says, “What’s amazing about fall colors, autumn colors, is really they’re always there even when we can’t see them. During spring and summer leaves produce chlorophyll responsible for their green colors. Chlorophyll is the compound that harnesses energy from sunlight triggering the photosynthesis process that converts water and carbon dioxide into food. The shortened days of autumn bring colder temperatures and fewer hours of sunlight meaning less chlorophyll is produced. Without chlorophyll to make the leaves green other pigments, which have been present all along, reveal red, orange, yellow, and gold that have been hidden during the sun brighten days.”

God is always working in the seasons of our lives even when we can’t see Him.

C.S. Lewis says, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else”.

Lord thank you for the hope that we can and cannot see in the season of fall. If this is the spiritual season of my life now Lord, show me how to embrace it. If it is a season of my spiritual or emotional life in the past, remind me how I have learned from it. Help me to be fully present in the season of fall both spiritually, physically, and mentally. Amen.

In His Grip with you!!

Pat

YOU CAN LISTEN TO EPISODE 14 of Permission to Pause on your favorite podcast app.

PS–Visit my SHOP–DEEPER DIVE for Permission to Pause Podcast for some “SEASONS OF LIFE QUIZ LINKS!) 

Also–a fun book by my friend Renee Fisher about Seasons!