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There is a season for everything.
Steve O. Alabi
Have you ever been in a situation when one day you are giving thanks. And a few days down later you find yourself wondering if God is really good because the situations have changed? You are not alone. It is only a test of our faith.
You will remember in one of my previous articles where I wrote about Divine Providence. After the testimony of the divine Providence during our daughters’ weddings, this time around, it was even more like going into the wilderness.
Thing just became different. I found out my business was almost at a standstill. For two months, clients’ jobs were completed, but the payments were not coming in as expected. It looked as if the tap of resources was drying up. Could that be so? Just two months back, God performed a miracle that looked like the wedding in Cana of Galilee. And a month after, it was like a sojourn in the wilderness.
Dear brothers and sisters, this was a time of worry. It gave me the opportunity for serious reflection.
Whenever you go through periods like this, just like me, the best thing to do is to step back. Reevaluate. And see what patterns you will begin to discover.
I realised that every year about the months of June to September, there was always a period when business did not move as usual. Not because there was nothing to do, it was actually because that was the mid-year for most of the clients, during which time they do their appraisals, so naturally things will come to a halt.
I never looked at it from that point. All I was concerned about was that if I had experienced the Divine Providence of being able to expend so much just one month earlier, things will just continue to flow endlessly.
In the period of my sober reflection. I critically looked at what patterns I have experienced in the past. One startling realization came to my mind. The passage in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 that says that for everything there is a season.
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
So, I decided to look into the seasons I had experienced. That was when I discovered that God was not absent. Neither was the cup of resources dried up. It was just a natural occurrence.
During that time. I began to think deeply again. Especially during my quiet period of meditation. I asked myself several questions. Am I being fair by thinking that God, who made things good could suddenly make them bad?
Then, I realized it was selfishness of the human mind, especially mine. I wanted only all the good things to keep coming. I never thought that even when it was my season of harvest, there were some people who had to go without. There were people who were really, really down at that time. All I did was just to give thanks and expected that the flow of provision would just keep on coming.
I discovered that even by doing the simple exercises of thanksgiving, it became really clear and almost reassuring that after the dark clouds there would always be the shining light. And that was exactly what happened. Those 60 days were like a sojourn in the wilderness. after which everything came back to normal again.
Then I looked at it and asked if I will go back to God and say I am sorry for what I was thinking at that time.
Do I have any moral justification to have even questioned God in the first place?
But somewhere deep in my mind I discovered that this was the reason our good Lord said that He would let us fall several times, and each time He would pick us up again. I dusted myself up. Went into prayers asking for forgiveness. Especially for that feeling of selfishness and even thinking and underestimating what God could do.
After that, I felt better, I could look to the future knowing that God was always with me every step of the way.
I am sure you too would have experienced situations like this. I suggest that you take the time also to look at such situations critically and be able to see that for everything there is a season. Good or bad?
God is always with us, and he says he will never leave us, even until the end of time.
My brothers and sisters, the times are really, really tough. But then, God knows why he has allowed us to be here, and He alone knows what we should do. We only need to take the time to ask Him for directions with the help of the Holy Spirit.
As we have gone through the month of the Rosary, I believe we would have been empowered more by looking at each of the mysteries as the journey in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ to the point where we can adapt them to our lives seeing the ups and downs that He went through all in a bid to bring us to salvation which is the crowning glory of our lives.
I hope you enjoyed this edition. I will see you in the next one. God bless you.
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