CHANGING OF THE SEASONS

There comes many times in our lives where we ask the big question, "What is my purpose?". Having spoken to my friend, Kayla, who was going through this recently, she brought to light something that changed my point of view completely. As Christians our number one purpose is to bring people to Christ, that is the most important one, but we have many purposes and we are able to decide what our purpose is. We are such multi-faceted beings that we are able to have many different purposes. These will change every season we go through. Our purposes are seasonal and when you begin to see it in this light, it becomes much less frightening.

I ended up doing this without even realizing. The reason I wanted to work on the ships was to become a missionary. I, obviously, ended up having to postpone this due to Corona Time, and found a different purpose or calling for the more recent future, which was to help girls find Christ and to help them on their journey to grow with Him. All of a sudden, I didn't feel scared anymore of what my future held, instead I was more excited than ever before. This is a baby step compared to becoming a missionary and I am 100% okay with that. This is also why I started my blog and it has been so fulfilling. This season of my life is busy equipping me for my future seasons to come. Keep in mind that you will never be fully equipped for what you want to do, but God does give us visions and callings that he wants us to fulfill.

This brings us right back to Moses in the bible, he had many seasons in his life, and each one had a different calling for him. He had a stutter and he had runaway from Egypt because he murdered someone, he was the complete wrong person for the job God was calling him to. He never realized that through his entire life he was being equipped to fulfill one of God's greatest plans. He was called in a season to be a shepherd, a husband and a father, before being called to be the instrument God uses to deliver his people out of Egypt. Moses was 80 years old when he led the Israelite's out of Egypt...

I think it just circles back that everything happens in God's time and not our own. There is a season for everything. There's a season for singleness, a season for teaching, a season for relationship and marriage, and a season for parenthood, a season for our work and achievements, and a season for grieving and loss. I guess that's also why it sometimes feels like everything comes and goes in waves. Our mindset is not aligned with this belief, correct me if I'm wrong, but we are constantly in the state of, "it needs to happen NOW"... We feel that we need to fulfill our purpose, NOW! We need to get married, NOW! We need to have our own house, NOW! We need to have our lives figured out, NOW! Otherwise we lose hope all together. And it isn't even our faults. Studies have proven that, not only are "mid-life crisis" a thing, but "quarter-life crisis" at age 25 have increased dramatically, because we are made to believe that at a certain age we need to have all these things and well it just isn't realistic.

I saw this really funny video on TikTok where this girl says, "Good news you guys! I have finally booked my wedding date! I don't have a boyfriend, but I work better on a deadline"... and I couldn't relate more. I always thought I had my life planned out... At 23 I wanted to be engaged, 25 married, 27 kids... so on and so forth. Then my whole world came crashing down, for the best, don't get me wrong. But I'm 23 this year... I'm single with no boyfriend on the horizon, I'm living with my parents, I no longer have a car, I don't have a job, and I was freaking out... If I don't have kids before 40 I might never have kids, and forget that, I don't want to be an old mom, I wanna be a young, cool mom. God has a funny way of ripping up our lists for us. I mean my life literally changed 360 degrees in the past few months... last year August I was about to get engaged, living with my boyfriend, then we broke up, I got a full-time job, my own apartment with a friend, I had a car, I had my freedom and then BOOM, nothing... no car, no apartment, no job, no relationship.

The reality is that we are constantly being pulled in different directions. We're told to plan our future and figure out who we are and what we want, we must have a 5 year plan and a 10 year plan and so many things,and at the same time "you have to live in the moment". And true, you should have a safety net, savings for when times do get rough and you should have insurance and medical aid. But to know where you want to be in 5 years? I can't do it... I physically can't imagine my life that far in advance, because I just experienced what it was like having my life going the way I planned to the complete opposite. You have to focus on a balance. It is one of the most difficult things to do. God does say that we need to make provision for our future, even though he will always help us, but he doesn't want us working ourselves to the bone and not living just to have enough money to live a lavish life at 65 years old when we retire... Tomorrow has its own worries, focus on today.

It's funny but the movie Tangled shows us a great example of moving forward. Rapunzel had dreamed her entire life of seeing those floating lanterns and did everything she could to achieve her dream, then got scared just before she fulfilled it. She turned to Eugene and asked him, "what if it's all I dreamed of, what then?", and he responded so beautifully, "well then you get to find a new dream". We have many different purposes, many different dreams and many seasons. When we fulfill one of them, we move onto the next, we can't allow ourselves to get stuck and say, "what now?", you're 25 and you've fulfilled your purpose... what then? You get to go and find a new one.