Seasons are in everything. We have the seasons of the year, but we also have seasons of the times. Things come and go, culture changes, trends happen then fade away into the background. Sometimes they make a resurgence, but inevitably, the season has passed and something new has taken its place. Each new season is different and unique from the last. And August is a perfect time to think about seasons.
We are a church in flux. Culture is changing faster than ever around us, and we struggle to keep up with it and maintain a good connection to what is happening around us. We struggle with this in our personal lives and within the church. But it’s something we need to pay attention to.
If we move at a slower rate than the world around us, we’re going to be left in the dust. We’re going to lose sight of how to speak to what is happening in the now. The past also gives light to our present and helps us to speak to what we’re doing here and now.
Seasons come and go. Looking to the past with a longing makes us forget about the hope of the future, the hope God gives us in what is to come. God tells us that the best is yet to come, that we have yet to experience it. Often in churches, we focus far too much on what happened way back when and we don’t look at the glories that await us in the future. We forget to hope.
As the seasons change, we have to make sure to keep hope in our sight at all times. Hope is what guides and makes the challenging times bearable. Hope gives us a light at the end of the tunnel when the tunnel seems too long to walk through it, when it seems like the season will never end. A new season is coming, a season of light and love and hope—a new season with God at the forefront of our lives.