Often, when we are faced with a season of sadness and gloom, we chide ourselves for being there and we try to get out as quickly as possible. However, being in a winter season is not always bad.
Mark Buchanan shares from the darkest, longest ‘winter’ seasons of his life and how God shaped him through those seasons.
“I think that we’ve bought into an illusion or paradigm that somehow we have to be in endless summer, that if we’re following Jesus then we ought to have a constant spirit of rejoicing.”
This idea of being in a constant state of happiness and joy is completely unrealistic and un-biblical. Even Jesus experienced a season of winter and sadness.
“Jesus was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. The life that Jesus invites us to is a life to the full, you get all, you get nothing muted, you get nothing turned down and so he increases our capacity for joy.”
While God increases our capacity for joy, He can also increase our capacity for sorrow. Our ability to be saddened is increased by sin and depravity around us or as we see things changing in our lives.
“You’re not muted or numbed to the deep depths of sadness, you feel it all.”
God allows us to experience seasons of winter. It’s natural and it doesn’t mean we’re doing something wrong in our lives. We ought to embrace the seasons of winter and learn from them. God also allows us to experience seasons of sadness so we can minister to others who are experiencing the same thing.
“For me the book was an effort to articulate and give language to an experience that I was having. As I began to talk to my church about it, I didn’t know up until that moment but about half the people in my church were in a winter and finally they felt like I was getting it and that somehow I became safe to them.”
When we deal with seasons of sadness we are better equipped to help and comfort those who are experiencing sadness because we’ve been through it already.
Key Scriptures: 2 Timothy 4:1-2
Featured Songs: Majesty of the Most High by Matt Redman; It Is Well by Matt Redman; Songs in the Night by Matt Redman
