We know a little something about changing seasons in the Florida Panhandle. Over the past week (it feels like months), we’ve been able to experience every season within a 24-hour day. When we wake up in the morning, it feels like winter. Mid-morning to noonish feels a bit like early spring. A few weeks ago, the early afternoons had a summer feel. As the evening progresses, it can feel a bit like fall. By the time you start counting sheep to go to sleep, you’re back in early winter. Our nasal cavities and respiratory systems have made sure we got the message.
Life is often viewed as seasonal. The age of youth is seen as spring, when the world, and life, is fresh. As you progress into adulthood, you experience the season of life known as summer, when life is full of activity and, like a farmer nurtures his crops, you build your life expecting a harvest. Then comes autumn, a season of maturity, when you reap what you’ve sown and manage the harvest of the summer. Life then seems to slow down a bit as you head toward winter, and you enter a time of introspection and reflection.
Though life can be viewed from a seasonal perspective, the seasons of life tend to pop up at different times, sometimes simultaneously. Just like the cold winds and chilly nights can disrupt a spring-like day, a season of life that’s supposed to be enjoyable can encounter a rough patch of undesirable weather.
As we live in seasons of continual change, we need a constant. We need something in which we can anchor our lives so that, regardless of which season we experience, we have hope that a better, more enjoyable season is on its way.
Enter Jesus. Specifically, Jesus the Shepherd of our souls.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been drawn to Psalm 23. Maybe it’s because people in our church are currently encountering all sorts of seasons in all different directions at different times. Just last Sunday, in the span of 4 hours, I walked into more than a few conversations where words of a winter season, such as “hospice,” “bad news,” “cancer,” and “final days” were mentioned, as were words of a summer season, such as “new job” and “answered prayer” were spoken. Maybe the Lord is simply giving me a reminder of the constant that I need to be reminded of in my own life. Regardless of the reason, I’ve felt drawn to the language of Psalm 23, and in contemplating it, I’ve been reminded that we have one constant for every season of life.
The gift we need the most, and the gift that is most precious, is the Lord’s presence. In Psalm 23, the Lord is pictured a Shepherd who is with us in every season of life. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
He goes in front of me when the season of life is calm. “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me BESIDE still waters.”
In the middle of life, when things can get dark and cold, he is with me, next to me, and even within me. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are WITH me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
At the end of life, he’s promised to be behind me. “Surely goodness and mercy shall FOLLOW me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
There he is. In front of me, leading me beside still waters. Walking with me, even when I journey through life’s darkest valleys, flanking me with his presence. Behind me, chasing me with his goodness and mercy.
We need Jesus to get from one season of life to the other. We need his presence to make it from the beginning of life to the end of life. We need our Shepherd to get us from one end of the day to the other. From tip to tale, and everywhere between, we need his presence, and it’s promised to us.
Place your season and your life on his path, and you’ll find the anchor for every season of life.
The View From My Pew 