Lessons from theHeart
It's what season?
By Pastor Sandy Hutchens

Hutchens

Yes, summer is over! It is now officially the fall season. Our children are back in school. Vacations, for the most part, are over until the Thanksgiving holiday. Our summer flowers are done blooming, and soon our fall flowers will be wilted and brown. The leaves are falling off the trees, and the air is really beginning to smell like autumn. The summer birds are heading to warmer climates. The farmers are harvesting the grains from their fields.

Signs of the changing seasons are everywhere, even in the church. Our education programs are back in full swing. Our music programs are back in song. Even the church year is heading toward its' end.

Just as there are different seasons in our physical world, and different seasons in the church year, so too there are different "seasons" within each of us as individuals. The book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 3 tells us "there is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven".

What season is your life in right now? Are you in the season of planting or uprooting something in your life? Are you in the season of weeping or laughing? Are you in the season of mourning or dancing? Are you in the season of searching or giving up?

No matter what season you are in, no matter what you are going through right now in your life, God wants you to know this: "nothing in life or death will ever be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

That is a promise you can bank on, no matter if it is fall or summer, Advent or Lent, or anything else in all creation!

Whatever season you find yourself in today, be sure to let God guide and direct you on your way. For only in Him will we find our true life.

Sandy Hutchens is pastor at Faith Lutheran Church near Deer Creek.