Smacking Weathermen

It has happened several times every year and I never learn. It gets me every time. It usually goes something like this:
I wake up before the sun does and drag myself out of bed. I go to the bathroom and come back into my room and sit down trying to find motivation to go for a run. Sometime later I find and get ready to run. I have my shorts, a dry fit T Shirt, and running shoes that have put in a couple hundred miles. I walk outside and suddenly get the urge to smack a weatherman.
Don’t act like you don’t do it too. You know those days when you walk outside and find yourself in excruciating pain because a gust of icy wind seems to be beating you up and giving you a wedgie. The weatherman didn’t tell me it was going to be this cold, not that I was really listening anyway.
I was complaining to myself about how cold it suddenly was when I realized, “Dude, its 5:30 in the morning in November.” I should have definitely seen this coming.
I do this all the time with God.
I am fully aware that every year fall comes after summer, and I am fully aware that seasons in my life are going to change yet I am surprised by both. Should I find it surprising that a season of “everything is awesome with God” would be followed by a season “What’s going on God?”
Should I find it surprising that a season in the valley would be followed by a season on a mountain?
I get so focused on what is going on right here, right now that when everything changes I get mad at God, even though I can look back on my life and see change all over the place.
Jesus told the Pharisees and the Sadducees when they demanded a sign from Him about seasons.
“When evening comes, you say, ‘it will be fair weather for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times” (Mt 16:2-3 NIV)
One of the biggest problems with Christians today is that we don’t recognize what season we are in. We pray for warmth in winter and a cool breeze in summer. We pray for direction when we are in a season of growing and rest when we are in a season of going. Instead of recognizing that God has specific times for specific purposes we get mad when He changes things on us. We want to smack a weatherman.
Solomon wrote about seasons in Ecclesiastes chapter 3, and then British Invasion rockers named The Byrds wrote a song about it. Now you have that song stuck in your head, it will most likely be there all day. You’re welcome.
The point of what Solomon was talking about was that there is a season for everything so we shouldn’t get stuck in the season you are most comfortable with. I am really comfortable in the season of being on the mountain and not so much the season of learning how to rock climb.
Paul tells Timothy in his second letter in the fourth chapter to “be prepared in season and out of season.” This means dressing like a Georgian.
I have discovered that Georgia does not have true seasons, we just have days of the week with each day having an entirely new pattern of weather of its own. True Georgians never pack away their winter clothes because they know some random day in April it is going to start snowing and then be 80 degrees the next day. That is what it means to be ready in season and out. You cannot leave behind the things you used in your last season when you move on to your next season or it would defeat the point.
I find it interesting the in the English language the word “season” is remarkably close to the word “seasoning,” which has a very different meaning. My thinking is that the more seasons you get to go through the better you will taste to the world in the end. Just a thought.
What season are you in? What is God doing in you right now? What season do you think is next?
“Through everything, turn, turn, turn. There is a season turn, turn, turn. And a time for every purpose, under heaven.”