The Seasons of Faith

The cool somber gray of autumn has started to descend. The damp morning air clings to body and soul. Once proud leaves droop as greens fade to orange, yellow, red, and eventually, brown. The gentle breeze no longer offers its sweet relief, but sterner warnings of winter's coming. Things are changing, always changing.

Life, like the world it lives in, is always changing. Seasons come and seasons go. The seasons are life are no different. Some have equated the developmental stages of life to seasons: birth (spring), youth (summer), middle age (autumn), old age and death (winter). Yet even in those stages of life we go through cycles of seasons.

In my experience, spiritual life has its cycles of seasons. It's rare to move to the renewal of spring without going through the "death" of winter. Think of it this way: when we come to faith in Christ we are in the "spring" of our faith. Life is new and eager, yet not fully matured. With the passing of time and testing of the individual, they blossom into the maturity. In the summer of faith, life grows and matures. The autumn of faith is harvest time. Even as the believer experiences productivity, things begin to slow down. Winter, then, is a time when things cool off.

In this analogy, spiritual winter is not death. Like actual winter, it is more of a time of hibernation. Spiritual passions cool. Growth appears nonexistent. However, life is below the surface awaiting the right moment to ignite renewal.

Maybe you have just come through a particularly difficult spiritual summer. Maybe you feel withered under the hot sun of persecution or tribulation. You have prematurely browned into the autumn of faith. You are tired and uncertain.

What do you do? You endure. This, too, will pass. The seasons of faith are not like the seasons of the year. They don't have regular time periods. They can be cycled through rapidly, like in a time lapse video, or they may stretch out over the course of years.

The Lord renews those who wait upon him. Isaiah said, "But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint" (Isa. 40:31, NIV).