Honoring God during challenging seasons
The dishes aren’t done. The clean laundry is still being folded on the ping pong table. Meal planning revolves around whatever will be literally the easiest thing. This season has not felt like a shining moment for me.
Today’s popular culture tends to idolize times when we have it all together. Hooray for the exercising moms with booming entrepreneurial ventures and tidy houses. Yay for the career women, stylish and bold, offering innovation in their field. Their ducks are all in a row.
My ducks are in several different ponds at the moment.
In this season I’ve been struggling with a feeling of falling short. When the sink is full of dishes and life just keeps trucking along, I can’t help but wonder what I’m really offering to my family, even to God.
There is of course nothing wrong with being in a strong season of life, and with having your stuff together. But there's also nothing wrong with the seasons of blah and challenge that God brings.
God uses all seasons for his glory.
The past few months have truly been a unique season for me. I've been facing hypermesis gravidarum. It's extreme nausea that comes with pregnancy for less than 3% of pregnant women. It’s debilitating beyond normal morning sickness, and often lands women in the hospital. It's no joke. While I'm through the worst of it now (no longer facing hospitalization-worthy dehydration) I'm still weaker than normal, battle nausea daily, and am often tired. Talk about a season of blah.
Wonderful habits and routines that I had established previously went out the window. Morning devotionals are rarer than I’d care to admit, my exercise routine evaporated, and family walks have stopped. My pursuit of moderately balanced nutrition has fallen by the wayside as I eat whatever my pregnant body is telling me it can tolerate. My frequent blogging fizzled. Etc.
Unable to do many things that I would normally do, I’ve been struggling to feel like I’m making valuable contributions to society. And the question that seems to be rising to the surface for me is this: what can I possibly do to honor God, to be faithful to Him, when I have so little to offer?
The answer of course has nothing to do with how much I have to offer. If my life was built on my own efforts, my own ideas and conquests, I would always come up short. Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Our lives are not about what we offer to God, but rather what God offers to us - namely freedom and redemption in Christ.
God’s glory also can’t be quenched by the challenges of a season. His gloriousness does not depend on my circumstances. So why would I let my circumstances hinder the joy that I find in who He is? He is just as faithful, as wonderful, as gracious and loving. Psalm 145:5 exhorts “On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.” In fact, the whole of Psalm 145 speaks to praising God for His works and His character. In verse 3, it even says that God’s greatness is unsearchable.
God calls us to honor Him whenever, wherever, with all that we have. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says “So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” So that means that whatever I am doing, I should be doing for the sake of glorifying God. If I’m sick, I can rest to the glory of God. If I’m well enough to do the dishes, I can do the dishes with a joyful heart, to the glory of God.
Spurred on by these truths, God has been helping me to understand that though honoring Him might look and feel different from what I’m used to, He still has endless glories for me to reflect on.
5 Tips for facing your season of challenge
Keeping these perspectives front of mind when life is off the rails is not easy. When physical circumstances feel ever-present, they’re sometimes louder than God’s truth seems to be. Here are 5 ideas that I’ve found both convicting and helpful over the past few months:
Honor God in the mundane tasks. Whatever God has for you today is an opportunity to honor Him. Be joyful while you unload the groceries, if that is what He has for you today. Meditate on His unsearchable greatness while you brush your teeth. Intentionally. You might be surprised how He encourages you.
Keep taking in the Word. This is crucial. If you’re looking for God’s truth during a difficult season, there is no better place to start than in the Bible. Sit and read if you're able. But if not, sit and listen. The ESV Bible online will read to you if you're not able to hold a book or turn pages. Other ways to get biblical encouragement include the Look at the Book series by Desiring God on YouTube, or other sermons and podcasts.
Remember that your life is not about you. Your life is not ultimately about your habits or accomplishments, or what you’re going through. All of that can be taken away in a moment. Your life is about Jesus. So ask yourself how you can you point to Him. Turn your thoughts and conversations toward Christ.
Pray and trust. Never did I think that I would find myself praying with my face down in the toilet. But as it turns out, trusting God while you vomit is actually really encouraging. Regardless of what you’re experiencing, you can pray. God promises that He gives peace when we come before Him (Philippians 4:6-7) so why wouldn’t we?
Remember that the glory of being with Christ will be greater than your current suffering. Whatever it is that you’re facing, be it something as serious as cancer, or something as mundane as a mountain of laundry, the suffering of today is nothing in light of the joy that we will experience with Christ (Romans 8:18). Take heart and persevere.