14 Feb A Lesson in the Seasons

Along with the rest of the world, finding a rhythm over the past few years has been a bit tricky for me. When 2020 hit I had two kids in school. My husband and I were homeschooling already, so there was no real change in the schooling department. However, what did change were the supplemental activities that kept us engaged in the community. Before Covid hit we had our normal routine of church, enrichment classes hosted by our charter school, and of course the usual dance, music and other activities our kids were into. My natural inclination was to try to figure out how to keep up the busy, hurried life I was used to. This led me to look for new ways to engage without gathering..

The two children that were in school at the time were my son, then 17, and my youngest daughter, age 13. The way my son is wrapped it was like he was made for quarantine. He didn’t mind staying in and away from people, he is a natural introvert. However, my daughter and I were bouncing off the walls! We are both extraverts who love to be in the action, and the isolation and quiet was unbearable for us.

To combat the quiet and loneliness of quarantine my daughter and l tried everything we could during lockdown. We made masks and donated them to our local convalescent home; we learned how to crochet, and how to make strawberry preserves, (my husband’s favorite of our endeavors); and lastly, my daughter made sourdough bread starters. My waistline is still trying to recover from all the homemade bread – yum!

Seeking More

Feeling drawn to something deeper, and with fewer carbs, I realized that, while filling our time was successful in keeping my daughter engaged in community, I was missing an opportunity to hear God’s voice in the silence. I began to be curious about the season of life I was in. I thought, “Instead of filling up all my time with doing, maybe God’s inviting me to take time to be with Him.” As you have probably guessed, my personality type is not one that naturally looks to sit and be anything, especially still. I knew this invitation was an opportunity for God to work something new inside of me, so I responded with a soft, “Yes Lord,” and a louder gulp.

I started to respond to the invitation by sitting on my back patio to watch the sunset. In Southern California, the sunsets are an explosion of blues, purples, reds and oranges. Watching the different colors each evening also gave me an appreciation for something else. It may sound strange; but, before my evening sits, I had not realized the beautiful colors in my own backyard. All the colors came alive to me: the deep purples of my Lavender bush, the forest green of my Palo Verde tree! I also began to notice a wrestling inside of me. I knew there was more the Lord was trying to speak to me, but the doer in me would not allow me to rest any longer. Instead, feeling inspired by all the colors in my backyard, I decided to plant a little vegetable garden.

Working the Garden

To tell the truth, I had tried to plant a garden before, but I failed horribly. At that time, the soil where I lived was not good soil for gardening. In my current home the soil is rich with nutrients; so, over the course of the next few months, I successfully grew a productive vegetable garden. I had so many vegetables I started to give them away. The weeks passed and, naturally, my once fruitful garden started to dry up and stop producing fruit. Trying to get more yield from my garden, I researched ways on how to make my garden produce year-round. Which in Southern California is not very hard to do. However, the more I researched the more I began to understand that a healthy garden needs rest. There it was again: “rest”.

I didn’t know it then, but my garden was teaching me a lesson. As I researched more, I learned that producing vegetables was hard work for my soil and during the winter it NEEDED to rest. Every year, as the flowers shrink back and the leaves turn brown and fall, the earth is able to get the well-deserved rest it needs. Winter is just as important for the harvest as spring. I learned that, in the winter, a seasoned gardener will enrich the soil with amendments and “tuck in” the garden with a blanket of mulch as it sleeps; so, I did just that.

As I prepared my garden for its winter rest, I heard the voice of God say, “Ursala, the seasons are for you, too.” It was not until this moment that I realized the invitation God had given me to sit and be with Him extended into the planting of my little garden. I don’t know about you friends; but, so often in my life, I am unaware of the story behind the story God is writing.

I was finally ready to hear the whole story and God revealed something so sweet. In every step I took to plan my garden: planting, watering, harvesting, even preparing for winter, God was using the rhythm of my garden to teach me about the rhythms in my own life. If I’m being honest, finding joy in every season of my life has always been difficult for me. This California girl loves warm weather, so I spend most of my winters inside waiting for spring to come.

Similarly, the winter seasons of my life can seem cold and unproductive. I often find myself wanting to fast forward through all the painful parts. I actually had a friend encourage me once that the best way to get through a hard time was to put your head down and just push through it. She said, “If you do this, before you know it, you will be on the other side.” At the time, I thought this was wise advice; but, now I know that there is a different way.

The “press through it” method will get us to the other side, but we will miss out on all the beauty along the way. This is because, as we move through life, it’s the shadows that help us to appreciate the light. Just like when we look at art, our eye is drawn to the contrast. Too much light and a picture looks washed out, too much dark and the image falls flat. A good image has both light and dark parts, and a good story is full of both beauty and pain.

Rhythms of rest

God invites us to sit with Him in all seasons of life; when we do, He wraps us with love and grace. Much like the mulch for my garden, it’s in these times that He gives us the nourishment and strength we need for life’s next season. Producing fruit and giving it away is good, but it is also good to rest. Taking some time in the day to just be with God is a healthy rhythm.

The rhythm of working in my garden brought rest to my soul, and that was the invitation that God was extending to me; and, He extends it to all of us. I have to believe the enemy loves to distract us from finding this rest with God. Richard Foster famously said it this way, “Our adversary majors in three things: noise, hurry and crowds. If he can keep us engaged in the muchness and manyness he will rest satisfied.” Scripture tells us Jesus is the Prince of Peace and His invitation to us is to step away from the muchness and manyness of life and step into rest with Him. Rest can take on many forms. Taking a walk in nature, drawing, or even playing the piano, can all be ways of resting. The key is that we intentionally slow down so we can hear God speaking to us.

The rhythms of life are not meant to hinder us, they are meant to hold us. Embracing the natural rhythms of life helps us to become more aware of the activity of God in our lives. Even the writer of Ecclesiastes knew the intelligence in embracing the seasons. Ecclesiastes 3:1-6 says, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing…” (NIV).

Scripture explains that, as followers of Christ, every season of our lives has a purpose, even the ones that are mixed with pain. Although some parts are difficult, each season is part of the story God is writing with us.

The practice of resting is new for me; and, like any new practice, it takes some time to develop a good rhythm. My little garden is still teaching me lessons. In each new season, God is inviting me to go deeper with Him. However, as my daily routines have gone back to normal, it is very easy for me to go back to the hurried life I was so familiar with. So, I must remember, “The seasons are for me too.”

In this life, God calls us to slow down and be still with Him. It is a sweet call, one that produces good fruit. And so, the natural question arises, “How is God inviting you to practice resting in your story, and how will you respond?” I guess that’s two questions.

Ursala Pierce-Houser

Ursala and her husband have 3 children. She was raised in a faith based home. Being surrounded by people who loved to worship God gave her a passion for God’s word and a hunger to connect people to God thru writing. She has written 3 bible studies.