If there's one thing that I understand partially, it's that life is made up of seasons. Seasons of happiness, pain, grief, joy, etc.
When I was 20 years old, I went through the most painful season change of my life. In quite an abrupt way, my dad passed away. I had walked through the depths and darkness of grief before from losing grandparents, but never had I been in a place where grief was in every nook and cranny of my being.
But here I was, facing the darkest time of my life, and I had no clue how people "deal" with this season. So I didn't. I pushed everything down and told myself that it was fine. Life would continue and the Lord would instantly heal everything that was wrong with the situation. I WAS WRONG.
What I quickly realized was that if I didn't deal with a changing season in my life, then my marriage and other relationships in my life would fall apart, including my relationship with Christ. So what did that look like? What did coping in a season of change look like?
For me, it looked like realizing and understanding what it meant to slow down and sit at the feet of Jesus. I am a campus missionary with Chi Alpha and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that we don't slow down often. So when my time came to slow down, this was a process that I had to learn.
I decided to start counseling with my dear, sweet best friend's parents. They taught me the importance of slowing down for long enough to understand where my heart is, and then bringing it to the feet of Jesus. On some days, this meant reading scripture in depth. On other days, this meant sitting on my bedroom floor listening to worship music and inviting Jesus to be in the room with me. On some days, it meant being 100% honest with the Lord about my feelings about the season I was in whether that was anger, grief, sadness, confusion, jealousy, etc.
So if I were to give one solid piece of advice for how to cope in a season of change, this would be it: slow down and sit at the feet of Jesus. You may quickly realize that although you think you do this often, you may have never slowed down enough to fully embrace His peace in the midst of a changing season.
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