The Seasons Of Our Life
In late 2010 I began doing an in-depth study on the seasons of our lives.
All the properties of seasons, how they come in cycles and how they change. Sometimes predictable but not always. Each season has it's pros and cons.
I did this in order to be better pastor to the people in my church who were going through their own seasons of change. Some were getting older and having to give up routine activities. Some were dealing with the sudden onset of disease or sickness. Some were dealing with family changes - marriage, problems with children, etc. Some were dealing with financial issues, loss of jobs, accumulation of debt, etc. And of course some were dealing with the loss of friends or family, through death, or divorce, etc.
Seasons are cyclical, but our life seasons come and go in different ways than the normal seasons of the year.
New relationships can be forged. Broken relationships can be mended. Wounds will heal. Recovery from surgery will take place. Sometimes God removes sickness from us, but sometimes God removes us from sickness by taking us on to heaven.
Little did I realize just a year later how much I would need the benefits from this study..
But it was good that I was prepared. Preparation makes all the difference in the world. For some time I had longed for some "downtime". I had worked all my life, beginning in junior high. I always felt I was on some body else's time clock; that others were in control of my agenda, and I eagerly awaited the day when I could spend my time as I wanted, when I could write, and read, and work on my scrapbooks.
So when I became so overwhelmed with pain by the end of 2011 to the point where I could no longer pastor a church or work in my Avon store, I was ready for that season of rest and relaxation, reading and 'riting'.
The most major change in my life, of course, was seeing a lifetime of church activity and ministry come to a close, at least as I had known it for the past sixty years or so.
As a little girl I had always gone to church. I never missed a service, sometimes walking across town by myself to attend the Free Will Baptist church where I was saved at age 10 and baptized in 1953. Good church people usually provided transportation for me since at that time no one else in my family attended church.
In 1955 or thereabouts I made a change to the Taylor Avenue Church of God where I met Milan and decided to marry him when we were old enough.
Throughout our marriage, we rarely missed a Sunday unless due to sickness and in those days sickness just wasn't a part of our lives, thankfully. We never took a vacation from work or from church. Mila Jo first went to church at 10 days of age and there was never a question on Sunday morning but what we would be in church.
Church days were busy days. I began leading the congregational singing in my late teens, and about the same time I began teach Sunday School classes. I was singing solos in church from age 8 on, and my sisters and I had a trio in the fifties and sixties until Kay was killed in 1964. I began preaching in 1978, and was ordained in 1986.
During my five years of pastoring at Farmington I never missed a service.
The first 10 years of pastoring at Oakland, I might have missed a couple of services due to having the flu, etc.
In 2009 I have surgery and was out of church for six weeks.
Other than those few times, Sunday morning church has been a part of my life for six decades.
I am writing this in May 2012 and I have not attended a morning church service since December 18, 2011. My pain level is worse in the morning hours and I am unable to move beyond getting out of bed and going back to my office to sit until around noon, when I am able to shower and get dressed.
I now attend Sunday evening services with Milan, but the ministry activities of teaching, preaching, and singing are no longer a viable part of my life. I'm not sure how much longer I will be able to get out on Sunday nights, but for now I am content.
Will there be another area of ministry opening up to me, perhaps through my writing? I don't know right now. I only know God is in control and "He knows the way I take", Job 23:10.
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