Seasons

Last night I went to a CD release concert at church. It was absolutely awesome! The singer has been on the gospel music scene since the early 90s and he’s a part of my church’s praise team. He talked about how he has endured many ups in his career but just as many downs too.  But he said it all prepared him for this time, this season, the season of releasing his debut CD.

A few of definitions for the word “season”:

1. A recurrent period characterized by certain occurrences, occupations, festivities, or crops
2. A suitable, natural, or convenient time
3. A period of time

We all go through seasons of life, the good times/seasons and the bad times/seasons, the ups and downs. There was a time when everything was going perfectly in my career. I had just graduated from my master’s program and had been accepted into a prestigious 3-5 year fellowship with a federal agency. When I was done with that fellowship, I had a job waiting for me. It seemed as nothing could go wrong. Eventually I left federal government and started working for a nonprofit in charge of developing a health education program for youth. I had the creative freedom to do what I wanted while honing my grant writing skills and securing contracts for the program and agency.

But I remember waking up one morning, sitting straight up in my bed and thinking something bad is going to happen at work. I didn’t know what, I didn’t know when, but I knew something was about to go down. And it did go down. Eventually all hell broke loose. That season bought on serious health problems, extreme stress, low self-esteem, many tears, and eventually a year of unemployment with no health insurance (I just quit). I went on at least 50 interviews. Now looking back over that time period, I learned so much about myself and about my God. It didn’t break me, I didn’t die like I thought I would, and I didn’t give up. Even though I had very little income coming in, I never missed a bill payment and was never late on a payment. As a matter of fact, my credit got better. (That was nothing but God). Also out of that season came the creation of my business, NLT Grant Writing Solutions, LLC.

We may have certain dreams (e.g., start a business, starting a nonprofit) that we want so, so badly. But maybe this isn’t the season for it. Maybe this is the season of preparation. This is the time to write your business plan and do some market research. Perhaps you want to be married. Maybe your season is coming up but for now you have to clean up some bad habits (and get rid of some people) and learn some things (e.g., learn to trust again) before your God-sent husband/wife is presented to you.

This season we are going through is preparing us for the next season. So how are you handling your current season? How do you handle the bad or uncomfortable seasons? What have you learned during your seasons?

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV): There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

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