Seasons of the Spirit ~ Valerie Ronald

I spent much of my life on Vancouver Island, BC, on the temperate west coast of Canada. The seasons there are less defined than other parts of the country, with rainy falls and winters blending into long, gentle springs and mild summers. Now living on the prairies, I appreciate having four defined seasons, each having distinctive traits and beauty.

“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven,” pens Solomon, the writer of Ecclesiastes (3:1). Then he lists what he perceives as the cyclical events of human life set forth in the providence of God. Birth and death, planting and uprooting, speaking and silence, war and peace˗˗all have an appointed time according to God’s purposes. “And He has made everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)

If there is a season for everything and a time for every purpose under heaven, then my spiritual life has seasons as well. My relationship with God is shaped more like an ever-widening circle than a straight line. This infinite curve is never static˗˗it undulates with the tides of growth and dormancy, mountaintop and valley, passion and complacency. I cannot say I enjoy every spiritual season, but I understand that each one is useful and necessary, and that God has a purpose for it.

In my spiritual fall season, I sense a need to prepare, storing up the things of God in my heart to be ready for whatever the future holds. As a farmer spends fall harvesting and storing his crops to prepare for winter, so God leads me to store up for myself treasures in heaven to strengthen me for the winters of my life. (Matt. 6:19-20) When I look back at difficulties I’ve experienced, I see that God often gave me a hunger to learn more and go deeper with Him in the time leading up to those difficulties. Fall can be cold and bleak, but it does not need to be barren when God provides abundant harvest for the soul to store up.

The world appears lifeless in the deep cold of winter, when in fact it is dormant, in an inactive state to survive adverse environmental conditions. There is purpose in dormancy, even dormancy of the soul. “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) If all I know when my heart is cold is that God is God, then that is enough. My soul life is in spiritual dormancy, deeply hidden, inactive, yet alive all the same. When God breathes warmth back into that minuscule spark of life, my soul stirs from its hibernation, the ice of winter begins to thaw, and it is revived.

The words spring and hope go naturally together in my mind. When spring stirs, my spirit rejoices in the resurgence of life, promising hope and continuity. Spiritual hope projects all the way to eternity, not as a possibility but as a surety, an anchor for my soul, because God’s promise in Jesus Christ is not a maybe thing. “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23) The hope contained in the prospect of eternal life with Christ, fulfilled in His presence, gives me joy and energy, like a spring lamb bouncing around a grassy field. The surety of hope in Him removes fear of death, opening the endless possibilities of heaven.

I live in a fruitful farming area where summer is a season of fertile land bursting with crops of vegetables and grain. I never tire of seeing the abundance of provision growing on the land. A spiritual season of fruitfulness can contain many aspects, like varied rows of vegetables in a garden. There is the personal fruit of intimacy with God, the fruit of selfless labour and sacrifice, the fruit of encouraging others in their spiritual walk, the fruit of sharing the truths of God with those who don’t know Him, and the fruit of prayers offered up for loved ones, to name a few. Spiritual fruitfulness depends on staying connected to Jesus. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.” (John 15:4) I know I cannot be fruitful on my own, so to bear spiritual fruit in each season I must abide in Christ, whose Spirit provides all I need.

The thing about spiritual seasons is that they always come around again, each one bringing more opportunities to discover the things God has made beautiful in His time.

See the changing of the seasons. All things change in nature; so do you and the seasons of life. Embrace change! God is there in the aridity, the new beginning, the fertility and the changing colours of life. ~ Christine Adam 

  

Valerie Ronald writes from an old roll top desk in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, with her tortoiseshell cat for a muse. A graduate of Langara College School of Journalism, she writes devotionals, fiction, and inspirational prose. Her purpose in writing is to encourage others to grow in their spiritual walk. 

Give Writing Time by Sandi Somers

 

“There is a time and a season for everything.”

 (Ecclesiastes 3:1.)

In my early years of writing. I was facing a deadline and didn’t have time to bring my piece to full maturity. I was in a hurry but submitted it anyway, feeling as though I was birthing a baby too premature to survive. Of course, my article was not accepted for publication. I promised myself I’d never do that again but work diligently with time to complete my writing properly.    

Today, many writing gurus emphasize that we “write fast” and “publish fast”. This concept is so promoted in our age of speed and instant results that it’s easy to be swayed and feel as though we need to hurry through our work. 

But God’s way is different. If we want our writing to be of the highest quality, we must give writing time. It is said that Ray Bradbury advocated that writers “put a novel-length manuscript away for a year. Then when you take it out and read it the words will appear to have been written by someone else. This process allows you to get a new look at your own work.” 

Giving our writing a rest is a principle from God Himself. Just as He instructed us to keep one day a week for Sabbath, He may ask us to give ourselves a break from our w-i-p. He knows the rhythms of our writing: when it is going well and when ideas and concepts spring to mind easily. He also reveals to us that when we begin to stagnate, we need to give our writing a rest, and with it, our mind, emotions, and body. Doing so will give us time to meditate on our ideas, gain a new perspective, and allow God to infuse us with new transformational truths. 

And yet, setting our project aside might seem counter-intuitive. We might be afraid that we’ll abandon our work altogether. But if God has prompted and inspired us to write, He’ll keep the idea in mind and will bring our attention back to it when we’re ready. 

During this rest period, we don’t stop writing, however. A new project might just be the incentive that spurs our creativity. Bradbury also knew that putting a manuscript away temporarily “works best with writers who have multiple projects open at once and who can work on two or three books or stories at a time, in rotation. When one is completed, you can switch to working on another, and when that is completed you can go back to the one on your desk.”[i] 

As we write, let us pay attention to the ebbs and flows of our writing, not hurry our project into premature birth, and follow God’s revealed plans. In so doing, we will write in rhythm with God.

---

[i] William Cane, Write Like the Masters, (Cincinnati, OH: Writer’s Digest Books, 195-196).

Stalled in the Middle: Shy Away or Seize the Day? By Sandi Somers

Ask yourself what motivates you to write and what "jumper cables" get your creativity running on all cylinders.

Steph Beth Nickel

 

In this month's topic, we come to the “muddle in the middle,” to use Wendy Macdonald’s expression. The writers of this month’s topic raised many issues and suggested so many creative solutions that I decided to include wisdom from all our writers (including links to their posts).

 I recognized that our writing progresses through different seasons. The Preacher’s words came to mind: “For everything there is a season, and a time for everything…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). So here goes.

 In every season our first priority is…

 A time with God and prayer. Valerie Ronald encapsulated all our thoughts: “Prayer is an absolute necessity before and during all my writing projects. I go to Him for inspiration, direction and help to navigate the tough spots.” Her writing has taught her “to recognize when He speaks to the creative part of my spirit…He will answer because He has never failed to provide the next step.” Pray that God will release the treasures He wants us to give to the world.

 Next we need a season of mind shifts …

 A time for wisdom breaks. Even a few minutes away from our daily projects enhances creativity. Sharon Heagy suggests: “Stare out the window, do a few menial chores…Just to get your head in a different place. Often while we are not thinking directly of the problem, the answer…comes to our mind in a moment of the ‘aha’ variety.” 

 But sometimes we need to let a project rest longer. Tracy Krauss switches to a different writing project when she feels uninspired or lacks motivation. Over the years she’s discovered an important principle: “once I've had time and distance, I usually come back with fresh ideas which couldn't be forced if I'd tried to slog ahead.” 

 Joylene Bailey introduced us to a new word. She procrastiworks—she quilts as a second creative project. Doing so opens “new creative pathways in the brain so that when you go back to the page, creativity…is refreshed, and you can come to the problem in a new way…it excites and fulfills me to know that while my hands might be doing something else, my brain can still be working on my writing project.”

 A time for self-care. Giving ourselves compassion is so important when we succumb to illness, when tragedy hits, or when we experience emotional pain. Steph Beth Nickel writes that during these times “we may be too physically or emotionally exhausted to even think about sitting down to write.” We need to rest in God's comfort until restoration comes. 

 When we give ourselves compassion, we discover that sometime later God may ask us to write what we’ve learned from our pain. It’s a powerful gift we can give our readers—it connects to their own heartbreaks and assures them they’re not alone.

 A time for renewal:  Martina Keast emphasized that engaging in research, rest from writing, and rejuvenation, “will help bring my head and heart into a state of coherence…where the creative flow will freely stream.”

   

Then we come to a season where we face deeper issues…

 A time to test our motivation. Steph Beth said we need to ask why we find ourselves “sputtering and coughing and coming to a grinding halt”. She advised us to “pray, consider why we began the project in the first place, and seek wise counsel.” We need discernment.  Does our core idea have meaning? Bob Jones asked:  “Is this the book I want to love and live with for the next two or three years?” Valerie concurred: “Does it fill you with joy and purpose? Are you aware of His presence with you as you write? An affirmative answer to these questions is reason to push through until you are unstuck.”

 To help answer these questions, Carol Harrison knew that we need input with other writers and friends. “Sometimes we just need someone to bounce ideas off of, glean knowledge from, or even get their expert help with technological issues,” she wrote.

 Wendy Macdonald agreed. What helped her was “to write past the messy middle because I had a set of eyes who were reliable and offered constructive criticism balanced with encouragement…The messy middle isn’t as dark and lonely when you have a good-willed critique partner.” 

 A time to let go of excuses. Sudden “urgent” needs can trigger us to avoid writing. Lorilee Guenter admitted that excuses lay at the bottom of much of her unfinished work, disguised as “the need to finish research…The need to clean up a space to spread out a sewing project.” With wisdom, she concluded: “Each day I choose to let God remove the excuses…so that when tomorrow becomes today, I will once again let Him guide and teach me.” Wise advice! 

A Time to face fear. Fear can be our greatest challenge, and it can come in many guises: “I’m not a good writer. Is this idea any good? Is it relevant to people's lives? Will I be criticized after I’m published?” Have courage. Stare fear in the face, and write scared.

 These guises are also Satan’s lies intended to keep us from God’s purposes. Refute him and rest in God’s promises. “He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and power and a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

 We come to a season where we keep moving forward...

 A time to trust the process. Alan Anderson is two years into his project of writing poems on grandparent grief.  “I am not frustrated, neither do I have any intention of laying it aside,” he wrote. “I am not going to rush the process. My current part of the process takes time as I review and revise the poems. I love this part. Through this process my hope is the poems will speak with one, ‘voice.’” 

 A time to push through – Bob Jones completed a painful marathon one step at a time. My runner friends have told me that nearing mile 18, they hit “the wall”. They're trained to take one step, then the next, until they get their second wind and complete the race. So it is with writing: one phrase or paragraph or page at a time.

 Bob shared his secret: “the decision to finish any project is made for you before you start. When you settle on never quitting…you’ll find the mojo to keep going when your momentum is gone. Pause. Embrace the pain. Start again. And again. Finish.” 

 A time to finish: The ultimate reason to write is to finish a project, Lorrie Orr said. “Making the goal close and personal helps me to keep going.” If another project begins to simmer in the background of her mind, she keeps the end goal of the present one firmly in front of her.

 Personally, the Lord has recently impressed on me to finish a major project. A deadline, a promise from God, and a prayer team bolster my commitment.

And finally, we’re in season when we focus on…

A time to honour God. You are standing on holy ground.  Right now. Know that He is working in and through you in whatever time and space you find yourself. Susan Barclay wrote: “I want nothing less than His best for me…God has good plans for me…When the time is right, He will show me the next step(s).” 

 Give your writing to God—your dreams, your creativity, His purposes for you. Be faithful and do the next thing in the power of the Spirit. Pray for joy and peace to renew your passion so you can finish your work. Looking unto Jesus, you can seize the day.

 *

PS After assigning this theme last year, I realized that five years ago we blogged about not finishing. Here are strategies you might find helpful.

 

What Writing Projects Make Your Heart Sing? By Sandi Somers

Image by Dreamstime.com

We’ve all worked on writing projects that we loved (passion projects), and projects we’ve---well, loved less. Lady Bird Johnson advised: “Work on projects that make your heart sing.”

As I’ve been thinking through Lady Bird Johnson’s wisdom, I’ve thought of projects that have sustained my interest until completion, while other projects initially excited me, but then became a chore, and I wished I hadn’t started them. What made the difference? It helped to know that I needed to discern whether a project excites me initially, or whether it continues to enliven me, bringing a sense of life, and making my heart sing.

I’ve recently come across a number of relevant concepts, concepts I want to share with you.

1.   To discern whether we’re enlivened or only excited, the psychologist Dan Allender asks us to probe the following questions: “What moves me most deeply? What do I most enjoy doing? Where do I find the greatest pleasure and joy? What is it about this activity…that brings me such a sense of life?”

2.   If we’re enlivened, we write from love and joy. The writing instructor and author Elizabeth Andrew says, “Write from a place of love—for the subject matter, for the writing process, for the language, for our readers.”

3.   Even in joyous experiences, we can run into discouragement, uncertainty, obstacles, and setbacks. We may need to acknowledge that we need help. But ultimately we need to persevere, to think of creative solutions, to turn to the Lord for His guidance and how He is sustaining us.

4.   Then we need to look beyond ourselves, to think of how we can inspire others. Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard advised us: “Dedicate (donate, give all) your life to something larger than yourself and pleasure—to the largest thing you can: to God, to relieve suffering, to contributing to knowledge, to adding to literature, or something else. Happiness lies this way, and it beats pleasure hollow.”

5.   Ultimately we give our passion back to God to develop according to His plan and His mission for us.

6.   I conclude with a very personal note. “To everything there is a season,” the Preacher wrote (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Projects that make us sing come to an end, and the Lord directs us elsewhere.

Over eight years ago, our then-moderator of InScribe Writers Online, Brenda Leyland, invited me to develop monthly themes and become the lead writer. Doing so has stretched my faith and writing, from my first tentative posts, to a variety of writing strategies. The Lord has been my constant guide. Comments from other bloggers have encouraged me, and in addition, I’ve developed both professional and personal friendships through this blog.

But now I sense the Lord asking me to close this chapter. Beginning with our June blog, Wendy Macdonald will assume these responsibilities or designate others in these roles. I will not completely disappear from IWO, however. For the foreseeable future I will continue as a regular contributor sometime during the month.

I pray that this ministry will continue with God’s blessing. Please continue to pray for our writers, just as I extend my love, gratitude and prayers to you.

~ ~ ~

Now over to you.

As you think of your past or current writing projects…How have you discovered Lady Bird Johnson’s advice to be true? How does doing so honour the Lord in your writing?

 Surround yourself with love and beauty as you write.

You are here to live in God’s love and reflect it to everyone around you.

When You Encounter Interruptions by Sandi Somers

Interruptions stop us...

We’re all familiar with interruptions.

They may be small interruptions: a phone call or text message or visitor at our door while we're trying to write. A friend who wants our attention when we’re busy. Someone who interjects their own opinions while we’re speaking. These interruptions can detract us from the focus/task at hand.

Interruptions may be of intermediate seriousness. This summer I was mentally drained from taking writing courses with their demands of weekly assignments, longer essays, and lots of reading. So from May to August I couldn’t write. The ideas didn’t come. Sometimes I felt I had lost four months of writing time.

However, major, life-changing interruptions out of our control can rock our world —and shatter our daily life, our hopes, and dreams.

Last year Tracy Krauss spent time in the hospital with continuing health issues, and over the year she was forced to scale back her responsibilities. “Limitations are my new realities,” she wrote.

Nina Faye Morey’s life was interrupted last year when her husband passed away. “Unfortunately, it washed away all those familiar roads in my life, leaving me to tread a lonely and solitary path through the wilderness,” she wrote.

Katie Gerke, one of our occasional bloggers, has written how MS has robbed her of most of her mobility and dreams for the future. And now in the last two months, she has been in and out of the hospital, including in ICU, dealing with various health issues (but not Covid so far). Over her years with MS, she has dealt with debilitating pain and weariness, isolation, and sometimes overwhelming sadness.

When we are interrupted, we may at first be disoriented. Bewildered. Angry. What we thought were our next plans have been halted; something or someone we love is lost with nothing to replace it, nowhere to go.

“The major problem of life is learning how to handle the costly interruptions,” wrote Martin Luther King. “The door that slams shut, the plan that got sidetracked, the marriage that failed. Or that lovely poem that didn’t get written because someone knocked on the door.”

Yet often these are God's interruptions that come from His love. They come for a purpose and plan. “My whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted until I discovered the interruptions were my work,” Henri Nouwen wrote near the end of his life.

During this time God may bring us to a place of complete dependency on Himself, a place where he shows us his tenderness. He speaks comfort, promise of his presence and rest. "I will make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope", He says (Hosea 2:15)

I learned this summer that “to everything there is a season” (Eccl 3:1). What appeared to be an interruption to my writing was an intervention. God knew I needed time to rest, to turn my attention to other things…beside writing…working in my yard and garden, taking long walks (the outdoors always rejuvenates me), catching up on visiting family and friends when Covid restrictions eased, and relaxing with God in the early morning. Finally as August progressed, I felt writing sparks began to flicker.

Tracy discovered a door of hope as she wrote: “As God continues to give me clarity about what I am to be doing right now in this stage of my life, I cannot continue to look back and long for how it used to be.” But she adds that God still has a plan and purpose for her, “I have more books to write, grandchildren to snuggle, people to encourage, and interceding to do, but perhaps not at the same pace.” 

Nina absorbed meaningful quotes on grief and thoughts from scriptures, which she shared with us. To restore some semblance of normalcy, she began to write again, also knowing that “creative activities are positive ways to cope with negative feelings and emotions.” She also looks forward to being reunited with her husband and meeting Jesus one day. 

Katie finds God’s hidden treasures as she lives with MS. She wrote that especially in her darkest days, “God shows Himself in light, so brilliant and breathtaking that I will take it and tuck it in my heart so I can use it ‘as a lamp to my feet and a light to my path’” Psalm 119:105.

“Interruptions (are) God's appointments." Debbie Macomber

And now it’s your opportunity.  

 How can you grapple with CS Lewis’ advice: “The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life – the life God is sending one day by day”?

How has God shown Himself to you in these interruptions?

Has your interruption turned into an opportunity—if so, how?

Seasons of Rest by Lorilee Guenter

 

Parched, like a drought stricken land, the ideas sit half formed. They wait for a gentle rain to grow and burst into bloom. This summer my yard has been parched. I've tried to keep some of it watered using an often empty rain barrel and a garden hose. It is not the same as a gentle rain for creating summer abundance. So too the landscape of my mind has felt dry. I've tried to keep pieces of creativity alive, watering them with walks in God's creation, praise music and more. It is not the same as a season of creative abundance.

I recently realised there is a pattern, a rhythm, to my creative year, just as there is a rhythm to the seasons. In nature, winter is a season of dormancy, a season of rest. The perennials rest under sheets of leaves and blankets of snow. They are not dead. They await their next season of growth. Summer is my season of creative dormancy. The abundant colour, sights and sounds of the garden pull me outside. Trails entice us to take a hike. They refresh. Like a houseplant flowering in January, there are glimpses of the season to come. 

Many times I have tried to force the season of abundant creativity to continue, just as I tried this year to overcome the drought. It does not work. Rest and renewal are necessary pieces of life. Without them we struggle and wither. But God does not leave us there. He walks with us, caring for us, as He tends to our needs as the Master Gardener, the Loving Father.

As summer gives way to fall, I notice the ideas start to sprout. The time of rest starts to give way to the time of growth. Maybe next time I won't resist the rest quite so much. Instead I will attempt to savour the January blossom as a reminder of what is to come.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.

Lorilee Guenter is a writer and artist who enjoys gardening and hiking. Sometimes she can be stubborn and miss the gift that is in front of her by trying to do things her own way.

'Tis the Season by Marnie Pohlmann

I long to be a writer enjoying the hazy days of summer like I did as a child; sitting with a scribbler in the shade of the cherry tree listening to the buzz of bees on clover, or exploring the rocky creek with bare feet to see where danger could lurk.

I want to be a writer tapping on a laptop while sipping iced tea on the deck.

I wish to take these sunny days to plot not just the perfect crime, but get to know the hero who proves the crime is not so perfect.

I dream of waxing eloquent with flowery verse that has ever-deepening layers of meaning.

I yearn to write an expository article sure to change how the church and the world, or maybe just myself, responds to current events.

However, this summer I am not sitting in the heat to write,
     or gathering story ideas while adventuring on the back of our motorcycle,
          or composing poetry while digging painted toes into warm beach sand,
               or treasuring memories of blowing bubbles with my grandson.

While I pray to feel the sunshine warming the world outside the air-conditioned staleness of my workplace, fluorescent lighting reflects the jaundice of my pale arms reaching for the keyboard. Brick walls painted yellow to give the impression of space are once again closing in. The past winter was long, driving to and from work in the dark to spend more years of my life in this basement cell. Spring gave a false promise of freedom, but I now, once again, feel chained to the desk, imprisoned in thick cinder block walls with no cell service and limited Internet. Summer finds me languishing, staring at a sky-blue computer screen that mocks, as though it truly was a window to the outside world.

Yet I believe God when He says,

For everything there is a season,

    a time for every activity under heaven

Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NLT)

I do not find one season any busier than another season. I quite easily fill my time with both constructive and wasteful deeds no matter the weather. I find the change of seasons, though, to be most taxing. Winter routines have relaxed, but summer needs at work, church, and home crowd in to fill days and evenings. Until the past season is finished, the preparation for the coming season is complete, and the rhythm of the current season is found, I often feel overwhelmed.

This year during the change of seasons, I add a transition in writing. I’ve been writing for years, yet have only just begun to enter a Season of Writing. I have not yet established foundational disciplines for writing in the midst of these transitioning seasons. I am grateful for this month’s contributions from other writers, which share great ideas I may incorporate into my days.

I find my writing is based not so much on a season of weather,
     as on a season of whether:

• whether I write when I am depressed and when I am joyful.  
• whether I write fancies of imagination, forming and fading like the clouds as my pen-strokes breeze a story onto paper and write facts that may not be exciting but simply state truth. 
• whether I write when the writing is playful and when the words are difficult.  
• whether I write in times of boredom and when I have over-extended my energy.  

Whether I make the time to write and take the time to write. 

This summer, I am learning how God provides for me the time to write. It is said John Grisham was a lawyer who wrote his best-selling novels in the few moments between legal cases. The Apostle Paul wrote while imprisoned. Surely, I too can learn to write in the times and places God gives me in this season – whether a quiet basement office, in the midst of extroverts at home and church, or on warm summer insomniac nights.

Praise God for His faithfulness in giving us a time for every activity!

How is the “whether” in your Season of Writing?


photos © Marnie Pohlmann