Only God is not a season

This article really made me smile ... had to read it twice before it really struck me ... THAT'S RIGHT! :-)  There are seasons for everything just like it says in Eccelsiastes.  As we grow more mature in our faith, we start to relax a little bit more with the ebb and flow of life.  One pastor described it this way ... It's like God opens and closes a valve.  If the valve closes we know it will open again.  If it's open we might ought to expect it will close some time.  Anyway, I hope you will enjoy this little story. 

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Five years ago, I decided to live without a salary. Just because I felt... well, I felt God wanted me to do it. I didn't care if people called me cookoo, or screwball, or ding-a-ling. But I wanted to try living in trust, waiting on Heaven for my next meal, my next ride, and my next haircut. Even just for a season. So I told my organizations NOT to give me a paycheck.

So there were days when I, Chairman of the Board, went past a McDonald's hungry, because my pockets were empty. There were days when I walked home because I didn't have enough fare.  There were weeks when I was tempted to don a ponytail because I couldn't afford a haircut.  (I recall that this ponytail ordeal came to an abrupt end when I received ten thousand bucks from a total stranger. I quickly ran to the barbershop and asked for the most expensive haircut they had, telling them, "You can dye my hair purple!")

My season of comfortable poverty lasted for almost three years. But Ironically, in those same years, I also traveled to three cities in the U.S., five cities in Canada, one city in Africa, four cities in Europe, two trips to Israel, and four cities in Asia.  All for free, because I was invited to preach and to guide people in pilgrimages.  (I remember leaving for my foreign trips with a nice coat and tie, so no one would think I only had twenty dollars in my wallet.)

 

But like the way it began, I felt a surging inspiration within me that my season of happy poverty was to end.  So three years after, I allowed my organizations to pay me a salary again.  (Would you believe? I have a savings account now -- something I had to look at the dictionary to find out what the word meant.)
I have no regrets entering into that season.

Because I believe I've learned one great lesson of life: That seasons of famine are permitted by God to give us deepened trust.

If we have everything - and everything goes on smoothly in our lives – we will never know what it means to really, really, reeeeally trust.

It's easy to say "I trust God" when you're vacationing in a Luxury Love Boat, dining in one of it's classy restaurants, napkin on your chest, munching on shark meat dipped in wasabe and soy sauce.  But it's not so easy to say, "I trust God" when your Love Boat has just capsized, and you're now in the open sea, surrounded by giant sharks with napkin on their chests, bringing with them their own wasabe and soy sauce.

But that's the point!  There's really no difference between those two scenes! 
You need to trust God fully, whatever the season you're in!

Two Questions.
Are you going through a season of abundance?
Being paid a nice salary, huh? Don't trust it. Employed by a large multi-national company? I don't care how secure you think it is, I'm telling you: it's not.  In the end, you know who will never fail.
Or are you going through a season of poverty or hardship or trial?
Believe me. That will end.  Because they are simply that: seasons. 

Only God is not a season.  Only He will never end.

 

~author : Bo Sanchez~

 

Taken from : FOOD FOR THOUGHT