In Due Season

One of my go-to psalms to pray with has always been the very first one. It's short, punchy, and gets to the heart of the Christian life, describing the ways of the wicked and the ways of the just.

While praying with it today, Psalm 1:3 struck me in particular. It says

"[The wise man] is like a tree planted near streams of water, that yields its fruit in season; Its leaves never wither; whatever he does prospers."

In my day-to-day life (especially living in an efficiency-obsessed culture), I'm constantly tempted to look at how much "fruit" I'm producing. As I jump from activity to activity, I'm constantly stressing about how much closer I'm getting to achieving my goals. Rather than encountering the Lord in the present moment, I'm stressing about how I'm not maximizing every last moment of my day, worrying that I'm somehow letting the day (and the week/month/rest of my life) slip out of my grasp.

Of course, as soon as I hit any sort of snag, or things don't go how I want them to, I immediately start blaming. I blame myself, I blame my circumstances, and I blame everyone around me. Of course, this attitude misses three key words in Psalm 1 that make all the difference...

"In due season."

As hard as an apple tree may try, it will not produce fruit unless its proper season has come (autumn). It can try to force the issue, it can try every trick in the book to produce fruit, but its efforts will be all for naught if the proper season has not yet come. Through the majority of the year, the tree must continue to be a tree, staying rooted in the ground and waiting patiently for the proper time.

And so it it is with me. I can constantly bemoan the fact that my life does not seem to be producing much fruit for myself or others around me, that I seem to simply be drifting by "like chaff driven by the wind," but this is not what the Lord wants for me.

God simply wants me to remain with him. That's it. No more and no more less. This may involve months, even years of (seemingly) producing nothing of worth. But my season will come, and so long as I have stayed planted near streams of water, I will produce fruit unlike any the world has ever seen, for he desires to work through me in a very unique way.

Until my season comes, I will remain planted in his peace. For no matter my season in life, his peace is ALWAYS accessible.