have you ever found yourself trying to resist the season change?
Wearing sweaters on a warm June day, flip flops into November - dreaming of fall candles and apple cider during an August heatwave.
Boy, am I guilty of this. I curse the weather if it is not a breezy 72 degrees and wish away the weather of the season that I am in.
On the farm, each season is very specific for a task, need or cycle to keep things moving. We have planting, harvesting, hay- first cut, and then second cut. We have animals breeding and giving birth. Mud and muck followed by dangerous heat waves and frigid cold temperatures. Our hearts are devoted to tending to life on the farm in each season, regardless if we want to be there or not. Each season is critically important to be able to survive and thrive into the next.
I find myself questioning God so often about the seasons I am placed in. The acrobatics I put myself through, trying to mold and bend myself around something that I am meant to sit with for a while. My expectations are kept tucked away in my selfish heart of desires and shallow dreams of what I think is best. In hindsight, I am able to look back at the seasons I tried to skip and thank God that He is who He is. That the strength that I try to drain myself away in, is carried by Him.
There are tasks on the farm that come each season that we absolutely dread. Without those jobs done, and done well, we would not be able to continue on with the farm all together. If anyone reading this has ever had to throw hay on a 100 degree day, you know what I mean. We get blistered, bloody and exhausted, yet without stacking hay in the barn for the next year, we would not be able to feed and provide for the animals.
I recently thought about this in relation to friendships or building community. When we moved to the farm from the suburbs, I was placed in a new town with brand new people and places. The idea of resetting roots seemed agonizing. I was too tired, too busy and felt too left behind. Why would God place me somewhere that I felt so alone? Could I somehow just skip that part and magically have relationships again? I fought this season with all of my might. I felt myself internally kicking and screaming away from it because it was not something that I wanted to put effort into.
Digging into biblical truth, I was reminded that it was something I needed to do though. I could not hopscotch ahead to a shortcut. Satan was creating this isolation and separation that I was just curling up with and finding false comfort in. But it was clear that God was there walking alongside of me during all of it.
I realized that there will not always be seasons that I am blessed with a community at my side just appearing magically. I have to put in the work and time, I have to experience being alone and pouring myself out for others - before expecting them to do it for me.
When we try to cheapen the experience, skip through the seasons without God, we find ourselves in times of drought, unprepared and lacking the joy that even a hot August day could give us. When we attempt to carry ourselves through, we will fail. We will find the disappointment that there isn’t snow in July or gardens blooming in February. God brings us to it and walks us through it all, regardless if we are ready or resistant to the change.
Alyssa Tangney
Alyssa and her husband Steve reside on their family farm in Michigan where they are raising their (soon to be) six children! She spends her days watering horses, fetching snacks (for kids and goats alike) and admiring God's creation before her eyes. Alyssa finds so much joy in witnessing the miracle of life. Farming has given her a fresh perspective on how creation has been designed intentionally to instinctively care for their offspring - and she finds so much beauty in watching it unfold.
For more from Alyssa, follow on Instagram @10acrehomemaker.
Photos provided by Alyssa Tangney