I’ve been thinking about seasons lately. Especially here in the Pacific Northwest when we wonder if springtime will ever show its lovely warm face and then STAY so we could actually become better acquainted! We’ve had mostly days of rain and chilly weather, but then suddenly the sun will appear and you feel like life is beginning again! Then five minutes later, here comes the rain. I don’t think I fully appreciated the sight of blue sky like I do now.
The pink cherry blossoms are beginning to bloom all over our city. In some areas (like my neighborhood) blossoming is still slow in coming, but to drive around and see the freshness and beauty makes my heart sing.
Whenever spring comes, I am happy. I love daffodils and cherry blossoms. I love the smell. Beautiful blue sky and white fluffy clouds. The new baby lambs running around the field just down the road from us. Life beginning to spring forth. But at the same time, I realize the weeds must be pulled from the flower beds, the dead scraggly branches that have fallen from trees through the winter must be raked up and discarded. Our yard needs a major makeover. And it’s work. Back-aching work. I don’t enjoy it and I don’t look forward to it.
A lot like our lives. Springtime is a season of cleaning and where the blossoming and green and beauty begin to appear. It’s not necessarily a time of bearing fruit, not a harvest time, but a time of readying for the season ahead. Getting rid of the weeds, raking out the guilt and shame over actions and attitudes. Paying attention to the condition of our hearts (our own private garden). In our lives, being intentional about getting rid of the stuff that easily distracts us from our intimacy with Him and His plans for us.
It’s also a time of fresh vision and promise. Believing for good things to grow and appear. It’s a time to be connected to the Vine. Spring is when I fertilize my flowers and bushes. With the hope that blossoms will be vibrant and plenty. In the same way, fertilizing my life with staying connected to the Vine. Cultivating my life by establishing a priority of staying in the Word and prayer, being nourished daily by talking and walking with Him, as well as those around me who share the same faith and priorities. Listening to hear God speak and establishing a pattern of obedience when I hear Him. A result of the feeding into and habit patterns developed in springtime will yield a harvest in the coming season(s). If I am too busy and distracted with things other than what God leads me to do in this season, there won’t be fruit in the next.
Springtime always is an adventurous time, dreaming big for the future. I think it has something to do with the sun reappearing and that Vitamin D kicking in. I start thinking of summer bbq’s and warm days and new things.
This season is also a time of training. When I gently nudge that branch to grow a certain direction (tying it gently to a stick or post). It is when I get rid of the “suckers”. Those nasty growths that sprout at base of plant and draw energy away from the real growth and fruit. I have to cut them away. My lilac bush is a prime example. For some reason, there are always suckers needing to be cut away. A weak point I always have to be on the lookout for. As in our lives, a sucker is anything that distracts us away from intimacy with GOD. It affects our fruit down the road.
Without discipline and training, there can be no growth. Or fruitful beautiful growth anyway. A bush can grow and grow with lots of suckers and look chaotic with no rhyme or reason. Or it can be stunted and ugly because it received no water or fertilization. Natural growth can be broken by training. When we are bent the “wrong” way we get angry, impatient and resist. We want to do what we “feel” or “comes naturally”. It can be uncomfortable and painful as He begins to reveal to us our independence when we try to grow our own way.
God takes our discipline seriously. It is not by tying us to poles like in a physical plant but by CALLING US TO OBEY HIS VOICE. We align our lives up with His plan, not our own. Forgiveness, sensitivity, patience, staying connected to Him. Every act of obedience, one after another, and we are being trained towards fruitfulness. The Lord’s discipline always trains us towards one goal….fruitfulness and intimacy with Him.
Intentional cultivating of our plants and gardens this spring will determine what they look like in the months ahead. Good patterns of spiritual care in your life now will determine the quality of fruit ahead.
There are usually LONG days between promise, fulfillment and harvest and those are the days and seasons when transformation in our lives takes place, as we are developing habits for the future. God has a plan and it is during these seasons that He is cultivating it in our lives. Can we be patient and let Him do His work. Let Him be the Gardener in charge?
I love this season of springtime. It is a lot of hard work. Requires attention. Requires patience. Requires discipline and training. But springtime doesn’t last forever. God always has another season ahead for us. Might be tough, but good. It will always be good.
