In What Season of Life Are You Now?
Whatever your age, it’s always a good time
to reflect on where you are in life’s journey.
With each New Year, we tend to reflect on what we did last year and want to do differently this year.
I correspond regularly with Kathleen Gibson in Canada, whose weekly “Sunny Side Up” column has been running since 2001. I related strongly to her December 18 column, which summed up how many people probably feel at this time of year. “Are you prayed up or fed up?” she asked. “Exhausted or excited? Weak and weary or finding strength in a quiet confidence that God is holding you?”
If you’re tired, weary, and emotionally distraught, there’s a cure for this:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30; NIV).
To Kathlelen’s questions, I would ask if you are wrestling with a bad habit such as overeating, not exercising, or procrastinating about something you should have done long ago? Ben Franklin offered this advice: “It is easier to prevent bad habits than to break them.”
Are you moaning about your life problems and lack the discipline involved in accepting or solving them? I like this advice from Martin Luther King Jr.: “Our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant. and to face the challenge of change.”
The Seasons of Life
This writing was prompted by Chuck Swindoll’s book, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life, which has inspired me since I first read it decades ago. Loaded with my yellow highlights, it has been one of my go-to books whenever I need some aging perspective or a shot of encouragement to keep writing. I love how he structured this book by seasons:
Winter: A Season of Reverence
Spring: A Season of Renewal
Summer: A Season of Rest
Autumn: A Season of Reflection
Regardless of your age, you will have these same four seasons of life each year. You don’t need a book to tell you how your thinking, attitudes about life, and relationships with others have changed through the years. (For some perspective on this, check out the discussion list on Quora.com about how people’s view of life changes every decade.)
As Swindoll puts it, “Each of the four seasons offers fresh and vital insight for those who take the time to look and to think. Seasons are designed to deepen us, to instruct us in the wisdom and ways of our God. To help us grow strong . . . like a tree planted by the rivers of water.”
Ways to Strengthen Your Faith
If you want to grow nearer to God, stay in the Word by reading your Bible along with books, newsletters, and devotionals by leading Bible teachers and authors. Three of my favorites are David Jeremiah, Jonathan Cahn, and Amir Tsarfati, but I’ve followed many pastors and Bible teachers through the years (See my “Favorite Bible Teaching Ministries and Pastors” article here.)
Pray about your future and ask God what He wants you to do with the rest of your life. If you do this in faith, I guarantee He will answer you in surprising ways. In my experience, answers to prayer often come when a new person enters my life unexpectedly.
Form relationships with older people you consider godly and ask their advice on what you might do to develop a closer relationship with God. They will have the wisdom of age to see things you cannot yet see or understand.
Facing the Challenge of Change
It’s obvious to any thinking person that our world is continuing to darken with changes none of us could have imagined a decade ago. I was encouraged to see that Swindoll—author of 91 books—is still publishing new titles, two of which focus on the universal topic of hope. About three years older than me, he has a great handle on aging. I loved these growing-old Autumn passages in his Seasons of Life book:
“Please don’t forget—God has decided to let you live this long. Your old age is not a mistake . . . nor an oversight . . . nor an afterthought.”
“Each one of our problems is a God-appointed instructor ready to stretch you and challenge you and deepen your walk with Him. Growth and wisdom await you at the solution of each one, the pain and mess notwithstanding.”
If you haven’t done this already, invite God into your life. (If my suggestions aren’t enough, an online search for the italicized words will link you to millions of articles on this topic.)
First published as a Personal MUSINGS post in January 2024.
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