Picture a line graph that is your life. From your start to the seasons that follow, the line rises with growth as it moves forward with time. The idea would be that your line would progress upward as it moves along the timeline of your life.
What I mean by growth is the changes in your life that lead to maturity, character, experience and wisdom. By the way, growth is completely your choice. You get to choose if you want to be a better person through the challenges of life. It’s not easy, but it’s better.
When you are in a season where you are beaming, in your zone, or killin’ it, let’s call that a winning season. You are winning! On the line graph of your life, it coasts, or plateaus a little. You can still be growing but it’s nothing like the challenge times offers you. When you are winning, it all feels right, the stars have aligned, and you can feel amazing. Who wouldn’t want to just stay right there?
A deception can happen when you are in a growing emphasis time. You may not feel successful, like #1, or that you are doing a good job at anything. (This can also be called “transition.”) But it’s not true. The fact is on that line graph, your line is gaining altitude. By the time you hit your next “winning” season, it will be at a much higher location than your previous one.
You are winning when you are growing!
My son, Caleb, loves to play soccer. He’s been one of the best on the team through many rec. seasons. When he started to play competitive, travel soccer, he became one of many great players, but not the best on the team anymore. He is challenged to grow and is being pushed to his maximum with soccer, but he rarely gets to feel like he’s the best. He is always being challenged to a higher ability, which helps him grow in his skills immensely. During the off-season, he’s been doing some pick-up indoor games where he gets to shine again as one of the best. He’s enjoying this winning season a lot. It’s casual, he alone challenges himself, and he gets to score much more often. Which does he pick? It is because of the challenging growing version of soccer (travel ball) he is able to win at a higher skill level than if he’d never played with them.
I am personally in a growing season of life. Some pretty big challenges hit my life in 2017 that I am recovering from. Most important of all, my best friend of 21 years suddenly passed away. As I go through the process of grief, it is hard to feel like I am successful or doing a good job at life. What has happened to my character, my strength? All I have been able to do in the past months is the basics for my family and take care of myself. I have had to choose for this time to believe it is valuable. I have not digressed. I am successful. And at the end of this, the line on my graph will be much higher. I will be more mature, have greater character, more experience and wisdom because of this season. I don’t feel like that now, I just know it will be true. I will be back, but more me than even before. I win.
You, my friend, get to win even when you are growing more and shining less. I think, after all, that we are shining to Him no matter what season we are in. He is so good and cares so deeply for us regardless of what we are going through. In fact, I wonder if He even thinks, “What season? All I see is you, my beloved. And oh, how I adore you.”