Spiritual seasons
By: Lisa Vo
Tags: Christianity, Seasons, Love, Spiritual Growth, Conversations

At your conversion, or when you first find the Lord, it’s easy to love Him. Like any great love story, the falling in love is one of the easiest parts. Life is bright, vibrant, hopeful and you feel with Him by your side, there will never be a dark day again and there is nothing to fear. You’re cured! You’re free! You’ve given yourself to Him. ‘This!’ is what it feels like; and yes; let me shout it from the rooftops with joy, loudly!

But like all relationships, it’s the staying in love that’s hard. To commit to a level of engagement in faith and prayer when life gets busy, dirty, joyful or challenging.

Prayer can feel like a grind, soulless, empty, monotone and mechanical. Somewhere along the way you’ve stepped out on the company of The One who adores you, and without realising it there is distance. In that distance, there’s a gulf and somewhere inside of this emptiness you believe this gulf is too wide to cross. If you’re not too lost, you look from the other side, feeling disconnected, a fraud, worthless, not good enough; and begin to question why God who loves me so, could let this happen! Little do we know that often this gulf is all of our own doing!

But like human relationships, it’s in the darkness and often despair that things change. We change. What can feel like a barren icy winter holds hope for our souls, and creates a time of stillness, a dormant waiting. In this spiritual sleep there’s experience, and searching. Reading to scripture, finding different forms of prayer, sitting still in nature or time spent in church or Adoration can gradually bring us round. As the icy shells of our souls begin to thaw, the Spirit stirs sowing seeds and forming budding roots that will grow when the season turns.

With persistent devotion to contemplation and prayer the season begins to change. Spring warms the soil and our faith once again grows, flourishing to the great summer heights, producing fruit in abundance. Those dark days long forgotten.. Just as we take our eye off the spiritual ball, and wane our devotion, the tide turns again. The cooling and the slowing. The road that maybe leads back to the disconnect.

Just as our earthy seasons change, so do our spiritual ones. A spiritual journey isn’t about finding God and keeping Him. It’s an organic relationship that develops and grows. It’s about knowing Him, and knowing His hopes, ideas and treasure for me! If life was always perfect how would we grow. If all there was was the falling in love, would we ever work beyond the ‘lusty-eros’ of a relationship and begin to find that deeper ‘agape’ love that we are destined to find, which quenches a hunger far longer than a quick fix of lust does?

Each time we work through our seasons, we learn more about us and about God. There’s so much He wants to teach you and show you. There’s so much He has planned for you that He wants to share with you. If spiritual life was all about the blooming fruits of summer, eventually the trees become worn out, fruitless and barren. The roots would fail because they’ve taken everything from the soil below, they’re worn out and spent. Our spiritual seasons give us some substance for the journey. They encourage us to dig our roots deeper into faith.

They encourage us that there is room for dormancy and bloom. They give us the skills to sustain. From the dark winter days, we learn how to ground and reach further into faith. And as spring emerges we meet Our Lord often from a new perspective, in the light of a fresh new day.

So as you walk your spiritual journey, remember it’s not all plain sailing. If you’re serious about your faith don’t be afraid of the spiritual seasons if they come! In fact, welcome them with open arms and hearts. These testing times can teach you more about faith hope, love, mercy and grace than you ever thought possible. So ‘go forth’ and ‘embrace’ ! And remember whatever you face, ‘He is with you, till the end of time’.

words by Lisa VO for a dear friend

Pictures by Valentinearcher & Lisa VO