“So being in a new job, out of my friends comfort zone at university, without my best friend and with a family who were also broken (and also celebrating) I felt like the rug under my feet had just been completely ripped out in the space of a week!” [Read the rest of Part 1 here]
We are to be unstuck who hold life with hands wide open, not stuck waiting for the next phase but willing to be used in whatever season we are in.
We live in a society that is very driven by plans and next steps and goals and success factors. I know for myself I am constantly looking for my next move and planning ahead into the next season.
Whatever that may be for us; the next exam, the next experience to enhance our CV, the next GCSE choice, the next university choice. We live in a society that has a constant need for ‘the next thing’.
I often find myself swept up by this cultural attitude and actually planning the next next season before I am even in the next one. Further to the need to constantly be on the move, I have often felt I can’t be used by God, until I have done XYZ, until I get to this step or that step.
Before the season I faced, I had my plan all worked out… in my relationship, in my job, in my new adventure after university… but this wasn’t God’s plan. I was so fired up and driven to achieve what I had planned out that I actually see now that God needed to stop me in my tracks to show me that my plan wasn’t actually the best plan for me.
And not only that but he taught me that He could, and would, use me in this season.
Another head to heart moment happened in 2 Corinthians 12: 8-10 ‘my power is made perfect in weakness’.
I was holding my life with very tight fists and certainly not wide open for God to use. My initial reaction was to hide away, build my strength again, and then I could come back and God could use me. But, actually as I began to rely more and more on God to get me through the days I realised he was using me through my weakness to glorify him.
Planning a week, month, six months, or year in advance like I used to would throw me into complete panic as I didn’t have a plan anymore. I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen or how I was to get one day to the next, but He did.
Gradually, finger by finger, I learnt (or am still learning if I am honest!) not to be stuck but to hold my life in open hands learning to gracefully move through seasons. As I began to learn this despite being weak, I could see how God was using me so much in my relationships, my job and many other areas.
I am constantly challenged not to prematurely push the doors for the next season but to actually stop and appreciate what room I am already in, what my portion is, where I have been given opportunities and who the key people are around me knowing that whatever season I am in, however weak or strong I am, to embrace the journey knowing God can and will use me.
I firmly believe we are to be girls who are to be unstuck, who hold our lives in open hands to move gracefully from season to season allowing God to use us within His plan for His glory.
I don’t know what you are facing, what your battles or pains are right now. But what I do know is that what God said to you in the light is absolutely true in the darkness. Hold on to those promises and look for the ways God is using you in the room you are in, right where you are at.
It’s a journey that we are on together; and that journey has both valleys and mountain top moments.
I honestly would not have changed going through that season for anything. The amount I learnt about God and His character and His love for me and His ultimate plan was worth the pain.
I can say this, not because I am now sorted and always happy and have an easy life having had my ‘tough’ spot, but because that painful season taught me a lot of life long lessons. It changed the way I processed a lot of things, it taught me head to heart knowledge and ultimately it taught me that no matter what, our God is good and He loves us and will pour out blessings on us through all seasons.
