A Season for Everything
Holding our giftings in new way
I sat down on the couch in the early morning and sighed. Thoughts swirled in my mind and reminded me that I hadn’t been writing much. I pulled up Substack and felt intimidated to try to begin writing an article before the sun rose. I started writing out a few words and stopped—feeling an impression deep in my heart, Brianna, you have been writing. It has just looked very different this season.
My eyes furrowed in concentration and then opened a little wide as I realized.
I had been writing.
I’ve actually been writing more in this season than in most. I’m enrolled in two different schools right now—to become a Department of Justice-accredited immigration representative and in a Spanish-language school. I write before the sun comes up about immigration law. I write when the baby naps, typing in foreign sentences as I try to absorb learning another language. I write when kids’ heads hit the pillows—advocating for justice in a world full of hate.
I smile, I really, truly had been writing. It has just held a very different form in this season.
There are seasons of life where our giftings are used in new ways—ways that may feel hidden to the world, but are just as important and needed.
We often see our giftings only through one lens of thinking. Maybe you are known in many circles as the friend who cracks the jokes, always hosts, is the listener…(you fill in the blank). We are known by others and often label ourselves by what we have to offer in the way we were originally designed and wired. We live in the spaces that give us life and exquisitely shine in the way we were created.
Friend, the way you were designed is beautiful. I can imagine the Trinity just gazing on you in such delight right now.
What happens, though, when there are seasons of life where we don’t have the capacity to openly share our giftings so that we have the margin to deepen who we were fully made to be?
You love hosting family and friends for dinner, and now, in this season, you care for aging parents, feeding them daily.
You are drawn to spaces of quiet listening to others, and now, in this season, you have toddlers daily showing you their art and telling you their creative stories.
You are drawn to creativity in all forms, bringing beauty into the world, and now, in this season, you don’t have the energy to create but have the eye to just sit and notice beauty all around.
You are drawn to writing, and now, in this season, you are sitting at a desk answering emails all day.
You are drawn to teaching others about a particular subject, and now, in this season, you are bedridden and only have the energy to read.
You are drawn to advocacy, and now, in this season, you sit in weekly specialist appointments with your special needs child, searching for answers.
For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven—Ecclesiastes 3:1
The way our seasons ebb and flow mirrors the beauty and variety that our giftings show up in outward expression. We desire for our giftings to be lived out in ways they once were or in ways we hope for, but for now, they are lived out as they are. That is enough. There’s nothing we need to add or take away from the way God beautifully designed us.
What feels lost as an expression of your gifting may just be taking a much-needed rest.
What feels hidden in the dark most days is deeply seen by the Trinity.
We are not behind in this life.
We are not forgotten.
We are loved.
Cherished.
Known.
Held.
I leave you, dear reader, with a quote I once read1. This quote is currently on my wall, and I invite my kids to speak it into themselves daily. We, as adults, need to embrace these words just as much as little ones do.
You are the only you this world will ever know. Something about your life is meant to make something about God known in a way no one else can.
P.S. If you want an additional read, I recently shared a guest post for Amber Taube on What Does It Mean to Be Rooted in Christ?
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I originally saw this quote in Raising Worry-Free Girls, and the author was quoting someone else she’d heard it from. I’ve adapted what I needed to fit our family.
This is so encouraging thank you.
It’s incredible how writing we have so many similarities. I feel the same way. I’m not ready enough. I’m not writing good enough and then sometimes you wonder is it even worth writing my story do people even care. Writing is a whole world within itself.