Most of us don’t have too much trouble recognizing the changing seasons as winter changes to spring or spring to summer, etc. However, it may be more difficult for us to recognize when God is prompting us to change from one season to another in our lives.

This is especially true if we’ve taught a Sunday school class, worked with children in one way or another, or sung in the choir most of our lives. Or if there are people in our lives who heap on guilt if we stop doing the thing we’ve done for most of our lives.

For example, long ago one of our former pastors said from the pulpit, “If you have the gift of teaching and aren’t using it in some manner in this church, you’re grieving the Holy Spirit!” And on another Sunday, “If you used to teach Sunday School and you no longer teach, shame, shame, shame on you!” If we don’t understand the principle of using different gifts in different seasons of our lives, this can load us down with guilt.

When our family began singing fulltime in 1982, I simply couldn’t teach Sunday school, sing in the choir or fill any of the roles I’d filled in the past. As I wrestled with my guilt, the Holy Spirit brought Ecclesiastes 3:1 to my mind: To everything there is a time and season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

I realized that God was saying that just as different activities are appropriate in different seasons of the year, using different talents will be appropriate in different seasons of our lives. Proverbs 31:16 AMPC helped me understand the process:

She considers a [new] field before she buys or accepts it [expanding prudently and not courting neglect of her present duties by assuming other duties]; with her savings [of time and strength] she plants fruitful vines in her vineyard.

In other words, I shouldn’t haphazardly take on new responsibilities just because I may have the gifts that would enable me to do them or because someone has asked me to do them. I need to take time to think and pray about any “new fields” I’m considering to discover whether it will cause me to neglect my present duties or if God is suggesting that a change of seasons is coming in my life.

My life became so much more enjoyable when I realized that the Holy Spirit would prompt me about which gifts to use in a given season. He isn’t a ruthless taskmaster, as the man given one talent described Him in the parable of the talents. He does not “harvest where he hasn’t sown and gather where he hasn’t scattered seed” (Matthew 25-24).

If you’re wrestling with feeling prompted to do something different from what you’ve been doing but feel guilty about stepping down from a role you’ve filled for a long time, consider the possibility that this may be God’s way of telling you that He’s bringing a change of seasons to your life.

Father, help us to relax and enjoy each new season that you bring without guilt and shame at letting go of the activity that is now out of season. Amen.

(Adapted from the devotional “Times and Seasons” in Homespun Faith, Reflections from the Seasons of Life.)