Seasons

Listened to Nichole Nordeman's Every Season this morning.

It was a shield against this season, where the enemy's message is so resounding

It will never end. It will always be this way. Broken, weary, long, exhausting. Your life is a defect. 
Joy will always slip through your fingers. You are made for winter.

Yet my God tells me different. He ushers me into something new. He pleads with me to join Him in His courts. With thanksgiving. No matter the season, with thanksgiving.

But He also requires that I not send up flags of defeat and buy into false-truths. Rather, to bank my life and build my foundation on His truth ...

that being ...

He is not done with me yet. We have miles to go, and they are filled with dusty paths and flowery fields, stumbling stones and wide-open skies, and that this valley is not the life I have been assigned to. I was not made for winter, but to rise up and bless His name. I was not made for brokenness, but for restoration. I am not to be enslaved into boundary-less patterns that wear down my spirit, but for life and freedom and future. I will choose to chant these truths, to the glory of His name, and the wellness of my soul.

Oh, however can I call it out enough ... Thank you, dear Jesus for leading me to spring.

Every evening sky, an invitation
To trace the patterned stars
And early in July, a celebration
For freedom that is ours
And I notice You
In children’s games
In those who watch them from the shade
Every drop of sun is full of fun and wonder
You are summer 

And even when the trees have just surrendered
To the harvest time
Forfeiting their leaves in late September
And sending us inside
Still I notice You when change begins
And I am braced for colder winds
I will offer thanks for what has been and was to come
You are autumn 

And everything in time and under heaven
Finally falls asleep
Wrapped in blankets white, all creation
Shivers underneath
And still I notice you
When branches crack
And in my breath on frosted glass
Even now in death, You open doors for life to enter
You are winter 

And everything that’s new has bravely surfaced
Teaching us to breathe
What was frozen through is newly purposed
Turning all things green
So it is with You
And how You make me new
With every season’s change
And so it will be
As You are re-creating me
Summer, autumn, winter, spring