Seasons

We are well and truly into the Winter months. Obviously, technically, it is still Autumn and will continue to be until the end of this month but for all of us who need to wake up before 6.00am each day: it is Winter. I don’t have to wake up this early. It is my decision to wake up when the temperature gauge is in the single figures and the sun is only whispering its intention to emerge for the day. 

It is my decision to wake up early because for this season, if I want to go to the gym, the morning is my only opportunity. The cold mornings will only be for a season and this keeps me going. I don’t know if I would feel as motivated if I thought I would have to wake up in the cold every day of the year. The cold mornings help me appreciate the warmer mornings, waking in darkness helps me appreciate when I will wake to see the sunrise.

Seasons are not restricted to weather. We have seasons in life. There will be seasons of joy and seasons of grief, times when we are busy and times when we can rest. King Solomon wrote about this in the Bible when he said there is a season for every activity. He wrote that there is “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, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throwaway, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Ecclesiastes chapter 3). I love this passage because it encourages us that life is made up of seasons and while we might be going through a time that is challenging, this will pass.

In all of these seasons there is a constant. This constant is God. He is with us in the joy and the tears. He is there when we mourn and when we dance. My prayer for my students and the broader school community is that you know this truth through the seasons of life and know that God is looking after you in each season.