Understanding Your Season
April 01, 2025
One of the things I've been thinking lately is this:
Understand the season you're in and go with it.
Like a boat on a fast-moving river, God takes us on a journey. Our job is to sit tight, follow safety instructions, and paddle. We'll always be safe!
Different seasons have completely different flavors, right?
Well, currently I'm in a season of grief, which I'll explain in a minute. I have been in this season since August last year, and I hear from God that it will go longer still. This is currently a season where there is sadness and trials, and I'm having to use strategies to fight for my peace.
But, as I write this, I'm OK! I'm writing with a joyful spirit. I'm just telling you how it is.
Let me backtrack and tell you how God warned me of this season back in 2016:
My family and I were on holiday in Samoa, a tiny island nation in the Pacific. Samoa is a rare nation that outwardly follows God, and you see it everywhere. The harbor wall, for example, carries enormous letters saying something about following the Lord. There are life-size crosses in people's gardens, and you see the Holy Spirit mentioned on TV.
So, while in Samoa that week, I had a week of revelation where I heard God more clearly than normal. It felt like I was in a place where perhaps the Spirit hovered more intensely than in other nations. I knew this place was different, and when I got on the plane to go back to New Zealand I didn't want to leave.
One of the things that happened that week was that my son, Miles, sleep-talked one night and spoke out a phrase in the darkness while we all shared a room. The phrase struck me enough that I quickly grabbed the pen and paper by my bed and wrote it down. It felt like it wasn't just normal sleep-talking. The phrase was this:
There'll be a new grief coming from Malta. It will be significant.
I might be sounding a bit crazy now, LOL, but bear with me.
Fast-forward now, to 2024, and as many of you know, Bryce and I visited Malta for a month. As our trip drew to an end, I dreamt of someone saying to me, "Grief takes 24 months". I remembered the above word from 2016 and said to God, "Am I preparing for a time of grief?"
Well, two days after leaving Malta, all hell broke loose in my extended family. A number of extremely difficult things happened, all beginning on one weekend. One of those things was so difficult that I had to take a month off from writing for SUM. Some of you might remember that.
It was as if my family unraveled. Every problem seemed to be an unsolvable problem that caused me enormous heartache.
Several months on, various members of my close family, including both of my parents, are in deep distress with their problems. Consequently, I am in touch with them most days to support them. I am drained. And on some days my heart breaks into a million pieces.
So that is the story in the natural. But remember, God told me it was coming! After Malta, you will experience a big grief, he said, and grief will take 24 months. So I say back to him, "Hey Lord, ok. I'm in this for the ride. Please show what it's about and help me."
This leads me, then, to talk about what do we do when we experience a time of such deep trial that it threatens to rob us of our peace?
I might pause there and continue with that one next time I write. But what I do want to say is this:
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4, NASB)
I believe it. So friends, I'm not going to lament these trials. Instead, I'm going to hold on tight and trust God to take me in that fast-moving boat where I need to go.
How do you navigate a season of grief? Looking forward to hearing your comments.
Love,
Ann