Seasons

I've been a cynic when it comes to New Year's for a while. I don't like when people make "resolutions" when they don't have the discipline to actually follow through with improving, and so I've started to see New Year’s almost as a lazy man's holiday over the years. Which is admittedly pretty unfair, and judgmental.

Lately, however, I started viewing this time of year in a different light. Instead of using it to look forward to the New Year, on what I can be doing differently, I've started to use it as a time to reflect on what the Old Year has been, and how God's provided during it. Recently, as the Christ Covenant young adults' ministry ended services for the year, the CCYA pastor Thomas Nelson mentioned a feast that's referenced in the Gospels, called the Feast of Booths. It was a feast that God initially commanded the Israelites to celebrate in Leviticus 23, and He provided little detail in terms of how He wanted them to celebrate it, outside of commands involving sacrificial offerings, rest, and the booths themselves. What's interesting about it, is how the Holy Spirit was active even then, in the traditions that the Israelites created for the feast without all of the traditions being explicitly instructed.

The Feast of Booths is and was always meant to be a celebration of God's provision during the Israelites’ time in the wilderness. The Israelites would recite Hallel, a prayer of praise and thanksgiving, the full version of which happens to be Psalms 113-118. While they did this, they would wave lulav, which are essentially leaves of a palm tree. They would do it because the growth of the palm trees and other crops were evidence of the Lord's provision for them amidst their journey to reach the land that He had promised them. These words ended up being the origin of the word Hallelujah – a combination of the words Hallel and lulav – and ultimately became one of the most common words we use when it comes to holy praise.

It’s no secret that the Israelites have had a long history of tribulation, in part to their own actions, and in part to the actions of others. But God chose them, not because they were righteous, or strong, or wise – but because they were His. Everything they had to endure was just a factor, of the process to inherit what the Lord has had for them.

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A lot's happened this year. I gained and lost. Got to meet people eagerly, and was forced to forget some bitterly. Learned from some people what to be – and from others, what not to be. I know it sounds like I resent those people, but I really don’t – I have no right to do that, since I have no righteous ground to stand on myself. It also doesn't matter how I feel about all those people and experiences now, because in one way or another, they helped bring me to where God always intended for me to be. We all play roles in fulfilling God's will in each other's lives, even if we're not always great at doing that in a positive way.

I remember this time last year, there were a lot of prayers I desperately wanted the Lord to answer. And He did. A lot of those answers turned out to be "yes, but," – which is often just His way of reminding me to keep in step with the Spirit. Responding to those answers – that’s unfortunately when change has to happen. I’m undoubtedly not the same version of myself that I was a year ago – and neither are you.

Part of me wishes I could take everyone with me that I've ever met, see how they change over time. To see the person they are at the start of every new year, at the end of every old one. Maybe that would put things into a better perspective – that nothing's ever really that personal, and the different versions of people we spend a season with will only ever exist in that season.

Those seasons keep us connected, though. And there's something really special about that. Partly because it gives two people a shared possession that’s exclusive to them. But it's also special because no matter what those seasons looked like, all of them will only ever have one common thread – the Lord's provision and free grace.

In this year alone, God has given me seasons that made me feel like I had everything I ever wanted, and at the same time showed me that they had nothing I needed. He gave me seasons that stripped away all of my armor, and at the same time showed me wounds and imperfections underneath that I was completely ignorant to. He gave me seasons that He knew would hurt me. Some that He knew would hurt others. Some of them changed the way I perceive certain places, or songs, or smells. While those things will never be the same for me, that difference in what they are to me is proof of God’s provision. The experiences that I take with me – that have helped mold me into the man that God wants me to be – and the fact that I’m in such a better place than I was during some of those experiences, to appreciate what He’s doing through them – they’re proof of His provision. They’re my lulav. The product of the seasons that God’s faithfully given to me, with the full intention and confidence that I would be delivered out of them being as loved as I was when I entered them, and as loved as I’ll be in my next season, and as loved as I’ll be in my last.

What a faithful God we’ve been created by. The God of Seasons gives us confidence that He will provide in the new, just as He has in the old, perfectly and lovingly.

I pray that you’ve seen that too. And if not in this year, then in the next.

Happy New Year – praise God for the Old one.