At the end of March, I published a blog called Changing Seasons. In that blog, I said that while most of us don’t have much trouble recognizing when winter changes to spring or spring to summer, it may be more difficult to recognize when God is prompting us to change from one season to another in our lives. No matter how many times God has changed our seasons, the changing process may still be difficult, because we have no way of knowing what method God may use to prompt us!
This writing season is perhaps the longest I’ve had in my life… from 2014 until now, although I also did some counseling and respite care during some of those years. Regardless, I guess I thought I would continue to write until God calls me home or Jesus returns, and that may still be true…
Nonetheless, over the last few months, there’ve been a couple of times when I wondered if God was preparing me for a change in seasons. In early April when far fewer people attended our book launch than had attended in the past, I wondered and sent up a few queries to the Lord.
Then on May nine, when only one person came to my book signing in the library in Sandy Lake–a huge change– my wondering multiplied. Was God trying to tell me this writing season was coming to an end or was it simply that people weren’t interested in these particular books?
Granted the time I spent at that book signing in Sandy Lake wasn’t wasted. I had a really good conversation with the director of the library and learned how God had worked in her life to bring her to this position. Also, there was no school that day, and I had lengthy conversations with a boy of about ten and a girl of eleven. The ten-year-old told me he might be interested in being an author some day.
Our table and chairs were set up in the children’s section of the library, and I struck up a conversation with the eleven-year-old girl as she looked at books on the shelves near us. Eventually, she placed a children’s chair to face our table and tried to sit in it but realized it was too small, so Donn set up a larger one for her.
The young lady showed me a cross necklace that her grandmother gave her when she was baptized recently. She told me her grandmother takes her to church every Sunday, even though her grandmother lives in Mercer.
As often happens, I have no idea how we got into some of the subjects we talked about—like the most important thing about choosing a husband. (He needs to love Jesus. Sometimes people who love Jesus marry people who don’t, thinking they can change them. Usually that doesn’t happen.)
This conversation was only about a week after our 55th wedding anniversary, and I had an opportunity to tell her that Jesus is the glue that holds us together.
Once our young friend answered her phone and then came back to tell us she could stay longer. She was truly a delight and kept me from feeling like sitting there was a waste of time.
After the girl left or at about the same time, a dear friend of ours came to buy books and catch up on each other’s lives. We also had a good conversation with the volunteer librarian with whom we’d attended church and whose daughter we had known when she was a little girl.
So, no, our day wasn’t wasted, but again, I wondered, God are you trying to tell me something? I wrote in my journal about my wondering, and as days went by, more devotionals in my quiet time were about guidance: Prepared for God’s Plan, How to Receive God’s Guidance.
On May 16, I read, Thought for the Day Whatever the reason, God is always encouraging us and wants us to use the talents we have been given to bless others (The Upper Room). Then I wrote, For the past ten years, I’ve been using my writing talent the most and also organizational skills for our church’s Welcome Ministry. If there is some other ability you want me to use, Father, I pray you’d make it clear to me.
On May 24, I Peter 4:10 was listed in my devotional calendar: Each of you should use whatever gift you received to serve other, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in various forms. Then I wrote, So for the past eleven plus years, I’ve been mainly using my writing gift, and whatever gift the Welcome Coordinator is… Is that about to change? Do you want me to use a different gift in the next season? Romans 12:1-2
During this period of time, I either read or heard something about changing seasons which caused me to wonder more!
I still don’t know what, if anything, God is saying; so for now, Donn and I and our Beta Readers are working on finishing Volume Two of Diary of a Call and waiting for the publishing company to finish “Where is Mary Now?”
In September, I have a book talk/book signing set up in the library in my hometown of Grantsville, Maryland. Hopefully, That book signing will be for the last four books I’ve written if all of them are finished: Diary of a Call, Volumes One and Two, Sarah Tales, and Where is Mary Now?
We will also probably eventually have a book launch and book talk/book signings around this area for Where is Mary Now? and Diary of a Call, Volume Two. But with the writing of these two books basically finished, I’ve decided to take a break and enlist Donn’s help to do some long-overdue spring/fall house cleaning. We really haven’t done much of that for quite a while because my writing schedule and weekend times with our granddaughter, Sarah, doesn’t include time for it.
I may continue to do blogs while we spring house clean because my blogs don’t have to be published. And I will definitely continue to make of my body a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2), being willing to do or go or be whatever God asks of me, listening and watching for any indication that a change of seasons is at hand!
Father, thank you for revealing to us when it is time for a change of seasons in our lives. Help us to be willing to make a change whenever the time comes. Amen.