After a reprieve a week ago with higher than seasonal temps the last two days mornings have begun with frost covering the ground. I’ve had to scrape and warm up my car and the clocks turn back this weekend so my evenings will be darker soon too.
While I love fall, the transition to winter is a little less easy for me. Having four different weights of coats for each family member hanging on our coat rack by the front door looks messy and sometimes the whole thing keels over.
In some ways I guess it feels a bit like life right now. We are in transition again in ways we couldn’t have anticipated. After 18 months we are seeing very real progress on our home addition/renovation. Multiple times over the last year we thought it just wasn’t going to happen. Last winter we finally landed on a design build firm whose plan we liked. Construction finally began in August and now we are at the phase where it looks exciting.
But then my husband lost his job three weeks ago. It was completely unexpected and, frankly, unjust. The timing, to my human eyes, seems questionable. Sometimes that first frost feels like it comes too soon, we don’t feel ready. We wish that summer and fair autumn weather could have lasted a little longer.
While we struggle with the dynamics of our situation and figure out the best path forward, our church has been working through a series on experiencing the presence of God. For the last two months we’ve explored Sabbath rest and prayer and we’ve just starting fasting. These are all concepts I’m quite familiar with but it has been a good reminder that spiritual practices help to sustain us in times of difficulty as well as times of abundance.
In fact abundance has been the word I keep thinking of this week. That where the world would see a season of struggle, God is able to produce one of abundance. Where from the outside it looks like difficulty, by God’s grace we will be able to thrive.
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. ” Ephesians 3: 20-21 (ESV)
Hang on through the hardest struggle
when it seems winter never ends.
Hang on though it pricks your bubble,
and you lose your treasured friends.
Hang on though you’re firmly nailed
to the cross you didn’t want.
Hang on through thought God has failed
in His great ‘I love you!’ vaunt.
Remember, then Gethsemane,
and apostles fast asleep.
Remember death and victory
brought by company we keep,
and walk that road through burning hell
with Someone who does know it well.
May God bless your family as you meet each new day. I am glad to read that you are trusting the Lord. God is faithful.
I’m sorry to read about your situation with your husband’s job, but I love your comment that God can produce abundance from a time of struggle. Praying that you see that in your life and that you know him with you.
This,,,,,,,,,,,”It was completely unexpected and, frankly, unjust. The timing, to my human eyes, seems questionable. Sometimes that first frost feels like it comes too soon, we don’t feel ready. We wish that summer and fair autumn weather could have lasted a little longer.” Such a great analogy
Your post was just what I needed to read today. I’m truly sorry about your husband losing his job, but love “where the world would see a season of struggle, God is able to produce one of abundance. Where from the outside it looks like difficulty, by God’s grace we will be able to thrive.”
I have much to learn from your attitude.
Thanks for sharing.
I feel a testimony to the goodness of God coming from you very soon, though this post is already a testimony of the grace of God at work in your life. He has got you covered!!