Seasons

Seasons.

Time.

Most people have heard the verse in the Bible that says there is a time and a season for everything. I have experienced seasons in my life, but I have never experienced one like this. Ecclesiastes 3:1-14:

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.
9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

I've had my times of laughing here.

I've had my times of weeping here.

My time in Mexico has been marked by times of great happiness and profound sadness. I have learned much about myself and my relationship with my Savior. My life has been forever changed by the things I have learned here from people I've met, places I've been, and things I've done. This season of my life is closing.

I don't want it to end. I want it to keep going. But verse 11 tells me that my time here is ending but my mission does not. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Every day I am being made more beautiful to Him and to others because it in His time, not mine.

Though I am leaving "the mission field", internationally at least, I am not leaving my calling: to tell others about Jesus. The next part of the verse says that He has set eternity in the human heart. How can I not tell others about Him, knowing they already have a longing in their human hearts? As a follower of Christ, I am called to share Christ with everyone I meet. I have taken satisfaction with the work I have done, but I am not yet done.

We've had team in this week from Ole Miss, and it's been wonderful to get to know them and make new friends. But they too have a mission field of their own back in the States, though we've been working along side each other for the Lord's Kingdom this week. I mourn for them leaving, but I rejoice in the work that has been done through and in them here because they too will have seasons in their lives.

Something else I have learned through all these seasons is how sufficient God is. I have had some difficult moments where mission life was not fun. It has been hard a few times. It has made me want to quit. But then I remember 2 Corinthians 12:9: "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me."

In those times when I am weeping, He is my Comforter. When I am laughing, He is smiling along with me. When I am worrying, He is my Peace. When I am hurting, He is my Healer. His grace is sufficient for me in all that I do. When I mess up. When I succeed. His grace makes me perfect in my weakness in all the seasons of my life.

The Christian life is seasons. Seasons that are awesome. Seasons that are hard. Seasons that are failures and seasons that are successes. Christ did not promise seasons. But His grace is sufficient and made perfect in my weaknesses. So, I choose to remember that His grace is sufficient. That I am less, and He is more.