In Season
by Justin Jones / Spiritual Formation Pastor
A verse stood out to me in my devotions this morning. I was reading Psalm 1 and it says this in verses 1-3:
“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.”
In that last section, it says that a person who is delighting in God and meditating on His law yields fruit “in season.”
In another time of my life, this may not have stood out to me much, but in these past couple of years Janelle and I have started a journey into trying to grow a lot of our own food. I have learned so much about how different plants develop, how different plants were designed by God to work together, and how and when fruit develops on different plants.
For the first time in my life, I have truly understood what it means to eat in season, or when you can pick something fresh instead of having it transported halfway across the world. Growing up, I never thought about seasons. I just thought that I had the right to any fruit I wanted at any time because the supermarket had it. And of course, any of us can go and buy those things (Janelle and I buy bananas and some other foods still). But by choice, we have tried to start eating more and more by what is in season.
One of the things that this has taught us is patience to wait for when something is in season. It gives us something to look forward to. And for us, since we are trying to grow a lot of these things ourselves, it helps us to be faithful in our preparation for these fruits. We must prepare the soil, grow the plants, water the plants, etc. Only after all of this work can we experience the fruit that we have been waiting for.
Why am I talking about all of this? Well, recently I heard a song by Hillsong Worship called, “Seasons.” It is a beautiful song that talks about this tension in our lives. We always want “fruit” in our spiritual lives. We become impatient and frustrated with God, asking Him why He hasn’t blessed us in a certain way. But as it says in Psalm 1, we yield fruit “in season.” Life will not always be blessed in every way. Many times, it takes faithfulness in our marriage, faithfulness in our work, faithfulness in our parenting, faithfulness in our church attendance, and faithfulness in our prayer life before fruitfulness shows up.
The question for us is: Are we willing to go through the sometimes boring and difficult work of faithfulness in order to be fruitful “in season.” When fruit is in season, it tastes so great. But, when that season is over, preparation for the next season of fruitfulness begins. What if we could start to be content with this rhythm in our spiritual lives? How would it change the way we live?
A verse stood out to me in my devotions this morning. I was reading Psalm 1 and it says this in verses 1-3:
“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on His law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.”
In that last section, it says that a person who is delighting in God and meditating on His law yields fruit “in season.”
In another time of my life, this may not have stood out to me much, but in these past couple of years Janelle and I have started a journey into trying to grow a lot of our own food. I have learned so much about how different plants develop, how different plants were designed by God to work together, and how and when fruit develops on different plants.
For the first time in my life, I have truly understood what it means to eat in season, or when you can pick something fresh instead of having it transported halfway across the world. Growing up, I never thought about seasons. I just thought that I had the right to any fruit I wanted at any time because the supermarket had it. And of course, any of us can go and buy those things (Janelle and I buy bananas and some other foods still). But by choice, we have tried to start eating more and more by what is in season.
One of the things that this has taught us is patience to wait for when something is in season. It gives us something to look forward to. And for us, since we are trying to grow a lot of these things ourselves, it helps us to be faithful in our preparation for these fruits. We must prepare the soil, grow the plants, water the plants, etc. Only after all of this work can we experience the fruit that we have been waiting for.
Why am I talking about all of this? Well, recently I heard a song by Hillsong Worship called, “Seasons.” It is a beautiful song that talks about this tension in our lives. We always want “fruit” in our spiritual lives. We become impatient and frustrated with God, asking Him why He hasn’t blessed us in a certain way. But as it says in Psalm 1, we yield fruit “in season.” Life will not always be blessed in every way. Many times, it takes faithfulness in our marriage, faithfulness in our work, faithfulness in our parenting, faithfulness in our church attendance, and faithfulness in our prayer life before fruitfulness shows up.
The question for us is: Are we willing to go through the sometimes boring and difficult work of faithfulness in order to be fruitful “in season.” When fruit is in season, it tastes so great. But, when that season is over, preparation for the next season of fruitfulness begins. What if we could start to be content with this rhythm in our spiritual lives? How would it change the way we live?