There is a Season

I'm probably dating myself here, but how many of you remember The Byrds singing "Turn,Turn, Turn" based on the Book of Ecclesiastes?

In case the answer is no (or you need a refresher), check this out.

Or perhaps you recognize this more easily:

Ecclesiastes 3 New International Version (NIV)

A Time for Everything

3 There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2     a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3     a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
4     a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5     a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6     a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7     a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8     a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

I've had this on my mind quite a lot lately. Summer is fading into fall, and even though the official season change is still a bit off, Labor Day marks an unofficial change. School resumes, the carefree attitudes of summer give way to the industriousness of autumn.

I've found myself reflecting and wondering about the seasons of our writing. Although we love writing for Love Inspired, many of us have also branched out in other directions. Why? I'm curious to hear how you choose what you are writing at any given point.

I have a novella out right now that's not from Love Inspired, though Belle Calhoune and I are both blessed to write for LI/LIS. I wrote this book because it answered a need in me at a time when I couldn't write romantic suspense. The collection is comprised of four novellas of modern day women who are inspired by legendary biblical women: Eve, Hannah, Ruth, and the woman at the well.

When I was asked to be a part of this collection, my husband had just been diagnosed with cancer. I was grateful to focus on reading and writing about the biblical Hannah because she was always described as a prayerful woman, a persistent prayer. I knew that I needed that kind of spiritual mentor in the upcoming battle, so I chose to do a modern day Hannah.

Unfortunately, the cancer was extremely aggressive, and my husband passed away within two months (before I'd even begun to write this novella). You could say that writing this story was my way of coping with the unexpected that life throws at you. It was cathartic, in many ways. I never experienced Hannah's struggle with infertility, but I do understand how it feels to keep praying when things don't go as you hoped and planned.

Writing this story answered a specific need for me.

The following lines from Ecclesiastes are less well known than the ones above, but I find myself reflecting on them in this season of change:

9 What do workers gain from their toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

I think we are blessed, as writers, to find satisfaction - and sometimes healing - in our toil.  

So today I ask you to join me in reflecting - what do you gain from your toil as a writer? How has your work blessed you?

Alaskan Homecoming by Teri Wilson

From the author:  My March Love Inspired release is called ALASKAN HOMECOMING. This book is the fourth in my Alaska series from Love Inspired, and it's a contemporary inspirational romance. The heroine of ALASKAN HOMECOMING is a ballerina, which thrills me to pieces. I've been wanting to write a dancer heroine for a long time. Here's a tiny peek at ALASKAN HOMECOMING:

Ballet dancer Posy Sutton is only back in her hometown of Aurora, Alaska, until her injury heals. It's a decision that'd be easier to stick to if she didn't keep bumping into her charming ex-boyfriend, Liam Blake. After six years, she should be over him—but instead all she can see is the mistake she made when she left him. She's not sure she can handle choosing between Liam and ballet a second time…if Liam is even willing to risk his heart again. When her time in Alaska is up, will she and Liam be part of the sweetest dance of all?

1. Posy, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

I'm a ballet dancer. I can't remember a time when I didn't dance. My parents say that even as a two-year-old, I would dance to the beat of the push-button toys in the church nursery.

2.  What do you do for fun?

My career doesn't leave me much free time, but recently I got into a snowball fight with the youth group at church. And, ahem, the youth pastor. Strangely enough, it was the most fun I've had in a long time.

3.  What do you put off doing because you dread it?

Since I've been home in Alaska, I've been getting a lot of phone calls from the ballet director of the company where I dance in San Francisco. I can't bring myself to talk to him. Not yet...

4.  What are you afraid of most in life?

Losing what I love most. For me, that's always been dance. But now I'm not so sure.

5.  What do you want out of life?

Dance has always been everything to me, but I'm starting to realize that it may not be enough. People need to love and be loved.

6. What scripture most defines your life?

A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to

dance..." Ecclesiastes 3:4

7.  What is the most important thing to you?

The most important thing to me is loving God and honoring his plan for my life, even though sometimes I have trouble knowing exactly what that is.

8.  If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would take back all the hurtful things I ever said to the people I care about.

9.  Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

I don't have a pet, but the church youth group has a dog for a mascot. A big dog. A REALLY big dog. When I first got to town, I mistook him for a bear. But that's another story. 

10. Can you tell us a little interesting tidbit about the time period you live in?

It's the most exciting time of all - the present. I'm finally learning to live in the moment instead of always looking back. 

The Cycle of Life. Christine Johnson

This time of year always reminds me of the ever-changing cycle of life. Spring's reawakening and brilliant colors usher in a burst of energy for those of us living in the north. The days get longer. The sun wakes me at five in the morning and stays up until almost ten o'clock at night. I feel energized.

Autumn brings a less exciting promise. The sun will sleep longer. The leaves turn color and fall to the ground as the earth prepares for the long winter's rest. My energy wanes, and I look forward to an extra hour of sleep when we move from daylight saving time to standard time.

It's at this time of year many years ago that my grandfather died from cancer - my first brush with death. Recently, friends have lost family members - sons, husbands, wives. How easy it would be to see only the falling leaves and the stark earth, yet God has given us a promise through His Son. I see that promise in the vibrant colors of autumn leaves. They remind me that spring will arrive in due time with rebirth and renewal. So too will life begin again in an entirely new and vibrant way, far beyond anything we can imagine. Through all seasons, He is there, showing us hope.

Give someone a hug today and shine a little light in their lives.

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1)



Christine Johnson
Groom by Design - coming July 2014
http://christineelizabethjohnson.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ChristineJohnsonAuthor
Twitter: @ChristineJWrite

A Time to Laugh; a Time to Mourn

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;"
Ecclesiastes 3 1-4

All of us know the truth of these verses in Ecclesiastes. We've read them and heard them sung. This week our family is preparing for "a time to mourn." My dh's mother is in an ICU. I won't go into the details but my mother in law is almost 90 and her body is slowly failing.

This is the mourning and weeping part. She is the last of her generation in her family and the last of our parents.

Yet this is sad and happy at the same time. We live a 6 hour drive from most of our family. So we are getting time to see and show love to them.

It has also been good to see our children and nephews show such love for their grandmother. The three grandsons who live in the area have all made the trek into the city to visit their grandma--even though she may not even be aware that they have come.

My own son who lives a state away sent a card. Those of you who have adult sons know what a gesture of love this is. When I saw it on the bulletin board in her hospital room, it touched my heart . He called again last night to find out how Gram was doing.

While my dh and his brother have been driving into the city every morning to be with her and talk to the doctors, my daughter and I have been sorting through all the family "stuff" in the house. We have begun the task of preparing the house to go to another family.

As we go through 1920-1933 high school year books and old scrapbooks and photo albums, it has been a good time of sharing. And telling her family stories and history, most of which she had never been told.

I don't know when Gram will go to be with the Lord, but it is comforting to know:

"Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."
2 Corinthians 5:5-8