Seasons
As I write this blog post, the weather outside has gone from stormy to spring-like to summery in a matter of three days. There seems to be a running joke throughout Memphis that there are actually 12 seasons of Memphis weather instead of the typical four, and they cycle through in a random sequence that is unpredictable and surprising. When I lived in Colorado, everyone knew the weather could be unpredictable as well. So, all prepared Coloradoans carried summer clothes, a parka, a blanket and snacks in their cars... just in case the weather caught you unaware or caused you to be trapped somewhere!
Sometimes life can feel that way as well– haphazard and unpredictable without a sequence or flow. We can spend most of our time simply trying to adjust to the changes in the season that we are experiencing. Many of my clients come to counseling because they find themselves in such a season of transition trying to make sense of the new rhythms and responsibilities they are facing. They are uncertain about what life is supposed to look like now.
It is in this space that counseling can be an effective tool in growth. Sometimes, it takes someone on the outside searching for themes in your life to identify something that God has been doing all along. Other times, it can be helpful to hear the perspective of a counselor to affirm the ending of a season or the start to a new season.
Ecclesiastes 3 reminds us that, “there is a time for everything.” It illustrates with beautiful poetry that there is 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.”
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
In our fast-paced, production-oriented, pleasure-focused society we LOVE the time to build, the time to laugh, the time to dance, the time to embrace, and the time to speak. We struggle when we are reminded in our humanity that there is also a time to “tear down,” “to weep,” “to mourn,” “to refrain from embracing,” and “to be silent.”
One of my favorite things to do with clients is to identify markers of the seasons that they are in. I love noting what God has been continually whispering to an individual as they journey through a season of loss or blessing or growth or waiting or planting. I love looking for how He has been weaving a story throughout their life– they are not just living a series of random coincidences.
I recommend a regular exercise in this to families. Take time in each season to reflect on how God is using that season in your life. As the school year has closed, make note of the high moments of the season, the low moments of the season, how you saw Him provide for your family, how you heard Him speak, and where you are asking Him to show up now. Teaching our children to acknowledge God in the various seasons of life will be a lifelong gift to them.
Finally, I think it’s important to note that there are even seasons communally in the work of God and the life of the Body of Christ. Growing up in the Jewish faith, Jesus would have participated in various festivals and feasts to mark the seasons of life in that culture. He would have celebrated Passover in remembrance of how God brought His people out of bondage in Egypt. He would have celebrated the Feast of Firstfruits which thanked God for His provision of the first barley harvest of the season. He would have celebrated the Feast of Trumpets where trumpets were blown in anticipation of the day of Atonement. And, Yom Kippur would have been celebrated- the Day of Atonement- a day for repentance and forgiveness of sins.
We can see all throughout the Old Testament these rhythms and rituals for life that helped point the people to the work of God in that season, remind them of where they had come from, and instill in them a future hope for how God promised to rescue them. In fact, these symbolic feasts and festivals find even greater fulfillment in Christ as they take on greater significance in light of the story of salvation.
I truly believe that rhythms and rituals like these help orient us as humans and build resilience in us as we persevere through difficult seasons. It is my prayer that rhythms of regular reflection and future orienting will help remind our children that they are part of a larger story, part of a bigger picture than just what we can see right now. It is my prayer that these rhythms will give purpose and beauty to our days in the middle, not just our mountain top experiences. It is my prayer that God will use these rhythms and times of reflection to help us find greater significance in our own individual stories as we seek to take time to understand how we fit in the larger story of Redemption that God has been writing throughout all the generations. And, it is my prayer that we will find hope that carries us through hard seasons of mourning, knowing seasons of dancing are waiting for us…. For they are truly all His seasons.
Meet Cammie Easley, LPC-MHSP!
Cammie graduated with her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in May of 2014 from Denver Seminary in Denver, CO.
Throughout her career as a counselor, Cammie has been passionate about helping individuals of all ages overcome anxiety and depression, heal from past traumas, process their own grief, and develop into the healthy and whole people that God designed them to be.
She believes firmly that seasons of hardship are God’s tool which He uses to make us more like Himself and to reveal Himself to us in ways that we would not otherwise come to intimately know. One of her greatest joys in counseling is helping individuals figure out how they can heal in a holistic way that incorporates their body, mind, and spirit.