In Due Season
by Lindsey Hanekom
Over the years of watching life on the farm we live on I have become much more appreciative of seasons. Every season has its important part to play in the rhythm of life. It is very easy to resent the harshness of winter, particularly when you have to trudge through fields of snow to get to work and the school bus! But the snow and the harsh temperatures are a vital part of the cycle of life here.
As I was pondering on the verses in Ecclesiastes 3, it struck me that there are times when things are going to be ‘negative’ in our lives. There are times when life will be hard, when it seems like God’s blessing is far away. This got me to thinking about what we construe as God’s blessings. Do we limit God’s blessings to things that make us feel happy, things that we can see as positives in the short term? If so, is it possible we are missing God’s blessing through the hard times and the struggles of the seasons of life? I certainly have never prayed for a time in my life for the Lord to tear down or a time for war (verses 3 and 8) – yet they are a part of the seasons of life.
It may be that you are living in a winter season and, just like me on a snowed-in day, you become resentful of it, struggling under the weight of the difficulties. We can reject the season we are in, and fight against it, because we think it can’t be right if it is hard or goes against what we want.
Just as on the farm we live on, there is a time for new life, harvest and blessing, but there is also a time of dying back and a time of replanting. All are necessary and you cannot have one without the other.
As I have learned to embrace the harsh Scottish winters, I also need to learn to embrace the hard seasons of life. I need to find blessings in the struggles, to see that God wants to reach my heart in all the seasons of life, not just wish them away and act as if they weren’t happening. When life is in a season of difficulty, those are the times that we can meet with God in a real and powerful way.
Galatians 6:9 says, ‘So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.’
The Lord calls us to persevere despite the season we are in. The harvest of blessing will come!
Lindsey Hanekom Lindsey has worked at all of our UK centres over the years and has settled at Ellel Scotland with her husband, Johann and their two young children, Kyle and Zoe. As part of the Leadership Team at Ellel Scotland, Lindsey has a heart for the deeply broken as she oversees the prayer ministry and is an established and passionate teacher with Ellel. In her spare time, Lindsey enjoys the natural world, particularly the ocean, and is trained as a specialist medic to assist stranded and injured marine mammals.
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