New seasons require renewed discipline.

In 2014 we visited Iceland for New Year. We had an amazing time, in a beautiful country with stunning landscapes, visiting Waterfalls and geysers, going whale watching and getting to see the Northern lights dance. Like most holidays, we came back with several souvenirs, woolly hats with the Iceland flag, a northern light scarf, some volcanic rock and some candles (still not sure why we bought candles). But one of my favourite things I brought back was a photo we purchased from a small gallery in Reykjavik. It was a picture of the same tree four times, in each of the four seasons. It’s a photo I have always hoped to recreate, and perhaps I one day will. I recently had an intriguing thought about this image, which hangs in our hall — what would this photo look like if it was a reflection of our lives and the unique seasons we faced? What if we were the tree?

Life is of course made up of different seasons, of ups and downs, a
s Ronan Keating famously sang, “life is a rollercoaster, just gotta ride it.’  It’s these seasons which often bring such variety and vibrancy to life — as with the actual seasons where we literally see the colours change, and the landscape transform from what was into what will be. If we think of the changes the four seasons bring, it’s not just aesthetics, it’s the disciplines, the necessary actions needed for each specific season. Our house has one room that is often colder than the others, and so can easily get damp, with condensation coating the windows each morning. During the summer months, I never have to give the windows a second thought, other than to open them when it’s too hot, but come the autumn and winter, I have to be disciplined in wiping down the windows before puddles form, or mould grows. In the winter we have to de-ice the car, in spring we prep the garden for summer activities, in the summer we hang our washing outside and forget about the tumble dryer, and in the autumn our summer clothes go away and we check our coat pockets in the hope for a rogue £5 note.

These of course represent necessary changes in action that correlate to the specific seasons we are in. We could translate these literal seasons to the other types of seasons of our lives; intense working hours; having young children; being unwell; times of plenty and so on. The greatest challenge we can face in any and all of the seasons is to recognise them as momentary and not as circumstances that are taking permanent residence in our lives. As it says in Ecclesiastes ‘there is a time for everything,’ and this includes a time that seasons start and a time when seasons stop. Perhaps one of the best lessons we can learn is to not hold on to any season too tightly — i.e. not believing we won’t make it just because the season we are in is hard but also not letting the seasons fool us into thinking we’ve “made it” when things are good. I’m grateful that Beth and I regularly remind each other, that although parenting is hard, we will never get these years back when the kids are young, so let’s have fun and enjoy them while they are here.

I’ve just entered a new season in my life, I am now a Senior Minister, and with this change has come a real changing of the seasons. Our staff team has changed, there is renewed emphasis and excitement, there is dreaming and planning, but there is also hard work, lots to learn, and so many areas where I need to grow. As part of my preparation for entering into this role, I’ve been spending time studying Joshua. Specifically Joshua 1-5 up to now. The book of Joshua is an amazing story. Joshua is appointed to succeed Moses, the man who had led the Israelites out of slavery, out of Egypt and into the wilderness. Although Joshua was succeeding Moses, his assignment was different. Moses had led the people in the wilderness, helping them form as a people, establishing the priesthood and the tabernacle, but Joshua would be leading the people into the promised land, he was to be a leader of conquest and war. This was a new season. And so the book of Joshua begins with God speaking to Joshua saying ‘Moses my servant is dead, now arise and cross the Jordan into the land I am going to give you.’ It can sound like God wouldn’t be great at a funeral! But actually for Joshua this was more of a pep talk, God was saying to Joshua ‘ok Joshua, Moses’ time has been and gone, now it’s over to you, this is a new season.’

New seasons can feel equal amount daunting and equal amount exciting. It’s certainly how I feel at the beginning of this new season in my life. But whenever there’s a sense of overwhelm, it can easily overshadow the excitement, and so God speaks something repetitively into Joshua’s life in this moment, ‘Be Bold and Courageous.’ New seasons require us to be bold, to have confidence. Of course we need to remember where our confidence comes from, for Joshua it would be God’s presence with him, God’s purpose for him and God’s promise to the people. God equally promises to be with us, to use us for his good purpose and to fulfil his promises in our life. 

God doesn’t just give Joshua a great pep talk, he gives him several commands, but one I believe is key for a new season, especially for anyone in ministry or for anyone seeking to walk in the ways of the Lord and it’s in verse 7-8:

“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.”

Joshua was about to lead the people into battle, to conquer a land and establish a nation, and yet God’s top tip, his number one piece of advice, was not to get ripped, or to study war, or to create a war room, or to build a new super weapon. No, his command to Joshua was for him to be a man of God’s word.

His command to Joshua was to know that this new season was going to require RENEWED DISCIPLINE.

This was not just going to be a season of new discipline but renewed discipline. The change of seasons, as I wrote above, brings about necessary change in action anyway. The Israelite people were moving from the wilderness into a land with milk and honey, from a dry land that gave them a need for oasis’s to a land with rivers running through. They were going to transition from wandering and pitching tents, to settling and building homes, from collecting manna from the ground to having to work the soil. These changes were coming whether they wanted them to or not, they were necessary. But God points to an even greater need, an even more necessary action, the need for Joshua to establish renewed discipline.

New seasons bring hard work, adjustment and a change of focus, and therefore the things that matter can easily be lost. Joshua and the Israelites had 40 years to think about this moment, you wouldn’t blame them for entering the land, and running at the walls of Jericho with unashamed abandon. But before they learnt to fight, they needed to remember where their strength came from. 

I don’t know what season you are in, but perhaps like me you are in a new season. If so, I believe that with each new season God invites us to renew our discipline, to re-centre our lives upon the one who is present, who gives us purpose and who fulfils his promises. The key to success in any season is not a great action plan, or human wisdom, it’s submitting ourselves to the one who oversees the seasons and invites us to know him in the midst of them all.