What is your purpose? Part II - Seasons

In a recent blog post, we had a look at “What is your purpose?”  We explored three areas that you need to explore your God given purpose.  God wants you to make a significant contribution to our world through your career, your personal life and your Church ministry.  Over the course of our life we will change jobs, hobbies and ministries many times.  We can think of these periods as seasons, just like the seasons of the weather. 

• Spring: We need seasons for preparation and growing.  The spring seasons in our life can be exciting but it also require a lot of patience. Perhaps you are doing further study for a new position in ministry or a new job.  In our personal life we go through “spring cleaning” when we want to create space for a new activity to enter. 
• Summer: We all have season of busyness.  If your career, hobbies and ministry all seem to be firing up you can feel great because you are achieving a lot.  In our busy seasons we can also feel that we are really living during the summer seasons of our life.
• Autumn: We all go through seasons of decline.  Our career, personal life and ministry can’t be constantly growing.  Sometimes we loose momentum or perhaps we are ready for a change.  How we manage our autumn seasons can really determine the productivity of our next spring.
• Winter: We all need a seasons of rest every once in a while.  We all need to take a break and regain our energy levels.  God wants us to take a weekly Sabbath (Sunday) and we should take a regular sabbatical.  How long since your last resting season?

If you were to look at each of the three areas below, could you see alignment in the seasons?  Perhaps you are living the perfect life because you have a good balance of the seasons in your life.  Or perhaps you are fast approaching burn out and the seasons you are in are warning you of what is coming.  To continue to fulfil your God given purpose you should ask yourself these three questions:

1. What season is your career in? If you want your career to reach its God given potential, you have to have seasons of rest so you can be productive during each growth season.  Plan out your year so that your career matches the seasons you go through.  Become aware of the seasons in your career to maintain your purpose for longer.

2. What season is your personal life in? There are seasons for growth and seasons for loss.  Remember that there is a time for every season under Heaven.  When you take care of yourself, you will be in a much better position to make a significant contribution to our world.

3. What season is your Church ministry in?  You will be going to Church every week for the rest of your life.  It would be boring if there weren’t changes.  You need spring times to keep you growing spiritually.  Whilst we would rather avoid the dry times, even the Saints went through dry times with God.  The key to finding your God given purpose in the Church is to find the ministry that gives you life rather than drains life.

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