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| Winter is Upon Us ~ J. Vanderbrink |
Praying for friends this afternoon and evening, parents with huge disappointments and loss and questions about how to make things better with and for their almost-out-of-the-nest child. I wonder how many of us haven't walked that path at one time or another. We did all we knew to do, but what is unfolding is very different than what we'd planned. Dreams didn't come true.
The harvest is not what we expected, but what we must understand is that God is the Great Gardener. He has new seeds that He wants us to plant and then allow Him to give the increase. This was a great lesson to me as I read what was probably my most significant read in 2010--Lost in the Middle/ Midlife and the Grace of God by Paul David Tripp. It's about how we begin to look back on life's experiences and disappointments with regret and discouragement. It's about letting the pain of regret instead be the pain of grace--growing pains, if you will. Anytime in life. Anytime there's regret and deep disappointment, or grieving over a lost dream.
There's much encouragement to be found if we can turn from our mourning. Let me share a bit with you as Tripp helps us to understand.
"In midlife God calls you to turn from mourning over your previous harvest to planting new and better seeds. Maybe you mourn about the harvest of your parenting. Plant new seeds. Maybe that means working to restore distant or broken relationships with your adult children. Or it could mean being a wise and godly grandparent, sowing spiritual seeds in the souls of the next generation. Perhaps you mourn that your life was controlled by your career. Take advantage of the time and economic freedom that midlife affords and plant new seeds. Work less and invest in family and ministry more. Perhaps you mourn the fact that you did not study Scripture more diligently in your youth. There are many opportunities to increase your knowledge of God's word and your potential for ministry. Perhaps you mourn over a selfish life, where all you earned was spent on a more comfortable life for you. Commit to finding specific ways that you can give and serve. Ask yourself: which of my gifts, experiences, resources, and wisdom can I use to serve others?
"You're now in the autumn of your life, and you're quite aware that the leaves are off the trees. You're standing in a pile of the leaves of your marriage, your parenting, your extended family, your friendships, your work, and your ministry. These leaves of the past have grown wrinkled and dry, and you know you cannot put them back on the tree. It's tempting to sit down in the pile and examine leaf after leaf and wish you were holding a new bud from a new sapling, but you aren't. The harvest has come in, and it is what it is. Yet in all of this there is hope because our Lord is the Lord of new seasons. With the new season comes the freedom to plant new and better seeds. With the new season comes the expectation of a new harvest of new fruit.
"Stand up and walk away from your pile of yesterday's leaves. Take the seeds of a new way into your hands, press them into the soil of your life, and thank God that you will live to see a better harvest."
