To Everything there is a Season

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8 

     "To every thing 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."
     Solomon, the wisest man to ever live wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. The scope of these verses at the beginning of chapter 3 are really to bring light to the fact that our lives are ever-changing, yet we pass through each season often too lighthearted. Also, we must take things as they come, for it is not in our power to change what is appointed to us. There has been a lot of conflict in my heart this past month in Uganda, and especially in this last week. With each goodbye I feel my heart saying, "I don't want to leave you." In each passing day it seems to hit me harder and break my heart a little farther. But in a way, God is using this time to make me trust him more. 

    This Tuesday was my last day assistant teaching at Calvary Chapel Christian School. My little kindergarteners knew I was going to soon get on a plane to fly back home, to America. It wasn't until I was leaving the school property to head home when a student named Gift came running up to me, crying, making me promise her that one day I would come back. 

"I won't let go until you promise!" she said. But I couldn't promise her. I couldn't stop thinking about that interaction for days. The moment is still replaying in my mind, because I want to come back. In fact, I don't want to leave. But when I return to that memory I hear God saying, "Trust me." There is a season for everything, Solomon wrote about it and God put it in His word. This season was for Uganda, and I know God was the one who supplied me with such a blooming heart for this country. But I also know that I committed to come, committed to leave, and now I have one month of reentry in Montana. All of that is in God's plan for me, and who am I to say that's not what's best? 

     I'm not usually too big of a fan of change, because my heart gets attached. But seasons are to grow us, and now that I am moving out of my field time, I have to be praying and have faith that God is going to use this change for even better things than I can imagine. Seasons are inevitable, ends are inevitable, but what I do with them is up to me. I choose to trust in Him who has already planned my days.