Thriving with God in All of Life’s Seasons

You don’t have to be miserable as the rotating seasons of life sometimes surprise you. You can learn to thrive with God in every season.

After moving to South Florida in my late 20s, I was miserable for six years. Missing cooler mornings and seasonal rhythms, I would grumble whenever I stepped into the hot sun and thick humidity at 8am. The rhythm of the South Florida weather calendar seemed to move from Hot to Very-Hot to Also-Hot to Oh-You-Thought-That-Was-Hot. Because a 58* day is a perfect one for me, this felt unsustainable. How was I going to root my life in a place where I was constantly miserable?

Well, thank God—literally—for social media. Yes, social media. On an October morning almost ten years ago, a friend posted: “Ah, the moment I wait for all year long. That first cooler October day that reminds us that winter is on the way.” His post pulled a string in my soul that gave me enough light to see the rhythm of the South Florida seasons. It made more sense, now. I had been operating on a calendar that doesn’t work here: Spring—Summer—Fall—Winter. Cool—Hot—Cool, again—Cold.

But that’s not how South Florida works. South Florida has three amazing months of “postcard days” (as a friend has called them). Cooler days, with some warmer ones, from November to February. March and April are hot, but not oppressive. May can be a coin flip. June through September are, yes, awfully hot, when you should either be in the AC or the pool. October pivots from the hot to that cool-down day, pointing to the cooler days soon ahead. Now as I have learned the rhythm of the South Florida seasons, I have learned how to live well and even to thrive in each one. Every season has its challenges, but each one presents opportunities, and invitations to live and live well.

Life, too, can follow a seasonal rhythm, a general pattern of Spring-Summer-Fall-Winter. Childhood-College-Career-Marriage-Kids-Grandkids-Retirement. Some lives, in some places, at times follow different kinds of calendars punctuated by Divorce, Abuse, and Death. Some seasons are harder and hotter, some fill with more Instagram-postable postcard moments. Learning to thrive and to move past survival mode requires learning how to thrive and to live well no matter the season. Of course, thriving and living life well seem to come more easily in nicer weather, but it’s often in the heat and humidity that we discover life like God intended.

As Jim Gaffigan said, having a fourth kid is like drowning and someone handing you a baby. We have all felt like that, or we currently do feel like that. That feeling of barely tilting back our head to pull air into our chests as the water laps at our faces. At times, that’s all God asks of us. Don’t quit. Keep going. As Churchill said, “Never, ever, ever give up.” Take one more step. Say one more prayer. Have one more conversation. Cook one more meal. Make one more sales call. Preach one more sermon. We have survival moments, and God delights when we trust him in the midst of them. I don’t think, though, that the pattern of the Bible shows that God designed us to make those survival moments a lifestyle of living in survival mode. A moment of trying to survive can become a pattern of living in survival mode, just barely making it. God offers more to us, not in the way the world or the prosperity peddlers offer, but a fullness of life with him in Christ with others.

The fruit of a thriving life grows from roots that reach down into the soil of Christ, his person and his work, who he is and what he’s done. “Thriving” is what the Bible calls “blessing,” living in the favor and presence of God.

But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.
(Jeremiah 17:7-8)

The thriving life is the life of blessing, which roots itself by faith into the soil of the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The key of a thriving life is not thriving in a moment of abundance. It’s easy to praise God in perfect weather. But can we trust him in the harder moments?

Often, we use the imagery of the storm for these moments. Thunderstorms of rain and wind and lightning that swirl like the trials of our lives. Yes, the harder moments can be intense storms of chaos and suffering. But more often the difficult times of life are slow and dry, seasons of drought, where everything feels like a struggle just to live. Every cent has to be put to use. Every flux of energy used for the next step. How do we thrive in these harder moments?

We need to learn from someone who has lived out this kind of pathway. Someone who has charted a course through the rotating seasons of life with God whether in summer or winter. Some who knows what it means to long for God. Someone who could write something like this:

God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you.
I thirst for you;
my body faints for you
in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.
(Psalm 63:1)

Someone like David.

David wrote a lot of songs and poems to God, called psalms, at all different seasons of his life. Psalm 63 sits near the end of David’s life, when David is in his 60s. He has just been expelled from the throne by his own son, trudging out of Jerusalem, through the dry Judean valleys to cross the Jordan River to safety. As those still loyal to the king make camp, without enough food and water for the journey, David sits on a rock, alone, looking over the desert. And he writes.

A psalm of David. When he was in the Wilderness of Judah.
God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you.
I thirst for you;
my body faints for you
in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.
So I gaze on you in the sanctuary
to see your strength and your glory.
My lips will glorify you
because your faithful love is better than life.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
at your name, I will lift up my hands.
You satisfy me as with rich food;
my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
When I think of you as I lie on my bed,
I meditate on you during the night watches
because you are my helper;
I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings.
I follow close to you;
your right hand holds on to me.
But those who intend to destroy my life
will go into the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the power of the sword;
they will become a meal for jackals.
But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by him will boast,
for the mouths of liars will be shut.
(Psalm 63)

How can David sing this to God in that moment? How can he say that what he needs both in soul and body (v.1) is God. Not food. Not water. Not the throne. Not protection. But God. How can he say that the chesed of God—the faithful, loyal, covenant love of God—is better than life itself (v.3)? How can he be so blessed that he returns the blessing back to God (v.4)? How can he find God more satisfying than the feasts of the palace he’s had to flee (v.5)?

I think the answer is that David has charted a life with God in all sorts of seasons. As we read the life of David in 1-2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles, we see three seasons of life and how to thrive through each one. Seasons where he learned to move past survival mode and to thrive with God.

Thrive with God Early On

When the Lord deposed Saul as king, Samuel the prophet was discouraged, grieving. The Lord rebuked Samuel and told him he was going to do something new. He was going to use Samuel to anoint a new king. Go south of Jerusalem, he said, and find Jesse. I’ve picked one of his sons to be the new king. Samuel finds Jesse, and Jesse parades his eldest, Eliab, out first. This is the guy! Samuel thinks.

Nope.

“But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the LORD sees, for humans see what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart’” (1Samuel 16:7).

Son after son. Impressive, each one. Nope. Nope. Nope. Seven sons, seven no’s. Seven nopes for seven brothers.

Well, thinks Samuel, there’s got to be another son.

“Samuel asked him, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’

‘There is still the youngest,’ he answered, ‘but right now he’s tending the sheep.’ Samuel told Jesse, ‘Send for him. We won’t sit down to eat until he gets here’” (1 Samuel 16:11). David did in fact get there. And Samuel emptied the oil-horn on David’s head, anointing him as the future king. Before this, David has lived in obscurity. He tended the flocks while his brothers get the attention. He learned to thrive in obscurity, while he was young.

There are two twin brothers on the San Francisco Giants pitching staff. Tyler and Taylor Rogers. Growing up, Taylor was the elite athlete. Tyler wasn’t. Taylor throws left-handed, and in the mid-90s. He was a highly ranked baseball prospect and draft candidate. His brother, Tyler, doesn’t have the same athletic skill. He throws right-handed, in the 80s. Throwing as hard as you can in the 80s is almost never enough to be a big league pitcher. But Tyler has a secret. Tyler learned to work around his inferior physical ability. He started throwing “submarine style.” Underhand. Now, he’s a better pitcher than his more athletic and more naturally skilled twin brother.

David learned to live and thrive with God in the pastures with the sheep. God showed up to him in that place, when he was young and a nobody, in the eyes of the world. God gave him small victories in that season, that were huge threats at the time: “The LORD who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear…” (1 Samuel 17:37). David learned to thrive with God early on. He learned to thrive with God at the beginning of his life. If you’re still young, learn to thrive with God now. It goes quickly and before you blink twice you will be in your 40s and wondering why you get injured from sleeping.

Thrive with God in the Wilderness

After David was anointed, God moved pieces around so that David ended up very close to Saul, whose kingship was soon ending. David played music to soothe Saul’s soul. David defeated the champion of the Philistines, Goliath the giant. David became the greatest warrior and military leader in Israel, leading the armies of God to victories stacked on top of each other. As the people began to cheer David more than Saul, Saul became jealous. Murderously jealous. David had to leave Jerusalem. For a long time, David lived as an exile, in the desert, in the hills, in the valleys. The longest section in the story of David in 1 and 2 Samuel is his exile and running from Saul. His anointing as king gets a chapter. Goliath gets a chapter. David’s season as warrior-general gets three chapters. His kingship gets ten chapters. His second exile gets four chapters. David’s first exile, though, gets eleven chapters. It wasn’t the longest season of David’s life. But it was the most important and the most formative season of David’s life. The wilderness seasons are usually the most important and most formative for us, too.

After a particularly difficult season, the people who had rallied around David in the wilderness were furious. They were ready to kill him. “David was in an extremely difficult position because the troops talked about stoning him, for they were all very bitter over the loss of their sons and daughters. But David found strength in the LORD his God” (1 Samuel 30:6). Saul had turned on David, and now the folks who had supported David were turning on him also. He had been fighting and running and trying to survive. But he didn’t just survive. He thrived with God. He learned to send out roots of faith into the soil of God and to draw life and strength.

The most difficult seasons are the most important and the most formative. That’s when God builds our faith and our character. I was listening to a podcast last week, and the guys on it were talking about the best quarterbacks in the NFL. They were noting how the best NFL quarterbacks usually don’t come from the best college football programs. The guys at the best colleges play with the best teams, so they don’t learn as well how to win when it’s difficult, when you don’t have the best coach, or the best offensive line, or the best receivers. The quarterbacks at inferior schools often learn how to throw the ball into tight spots and how to keep from getting sacked when the pocket collapses.

If you’re in a wilderness season, let the dry air and the lack of food cause you to push your roots deep into the soil of God. Soak your mind in the Bible. Push your face into the carpet and pray. Draw near to the God who is already there close to you.

Thrive with God When You Fail

We can’t tell the story of David without remembering the catastrophe of his failure. You probably know the story. He illegitimately takes a beautiful woman, Bathsheba, and he uses his power and authority to get her into his bed (2 Samuel 11). Many theologians actually think this episode is more like rape than adultery. After all, what choice did Bathsehba have? David gets her pregnant. He calls her husband Uriah home from the battle line, so that Uriah can sleep with his wife and give legitimacy to the baby. But the man, Uriah, has more honor than David. He refuses to comfort himself while his men are still at war. David send hims back to war, commanding the commander of his army to make sure that Uriah dies in battle. So David has sexually abused a woman and murdered her husband.

That is catastrophic moral failure.

How do you come back from that? The Lord sends a prophet, Nathan, to rebuke David. The prophetic word shakes away the stupor of sin, and David realizes what he’s done. He writes the great psalm of repentance, Psalm 51.

Be gracious to me, God,
according to your faithful love;
according to your abundant compassion,
blot out my rebellion.
Completely wash away my guilt
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I am conscious of my rebellion,
and my sin is always before me.
(Psalm 51:1-3)

David confesses and repents, yet the consequences of his sin echo into the rest of his story. David’s son Amnon rapes his half-sister, David’s daughter Tamar. So David’s son Abaslom, Tamar’s full brother, kills Amnon. David banishes Absalom. Some years later, Absalom returns, but with bitterness and a plot. “Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel” (2 Samuel 15:6). Abaslom overthrows David as king, and David has to run for his life—again. On the way out of town, through the dry valleys of the Judean desert, one of Saul’s relatives curses David.

He threw stones at David and at all the royal servants, the people and the warriors on David’s right and left. Shimei said as he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of bloodshed, you wicked man! 8 The Lord has paid you back for all the blood of the house of Saul in whose place you became king, and the Lord has handed the kingdom over to your son Absalom. Look, you are in trouble because you’re a man of bloodshed!” (2 Samuel 16:6–8)

David’s men who have remained loyal to him want to kill the man and silence his insults. But David sees things differently.

The king replied, “Sons of Zeruiah, do we agree on anything? He curses me this way because the LORD told him, ‘Curse David!’ Therefore, who can say, ‘Why did you do that?’”  Then David said to Abishai and all his servants, “Look, my own son, my own flesh and blood, intends to take my life—how much more now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone and let him curse me; the LORD has told him to. Perhaps the LORD will see my affliction and restore goodness to me instead of Shimei’s curses today.” (2 Samuel 16:10–12)

David doesn’t find himself thriving. He believes he is under the curse of God, which is the opposite of the blessing of God. David doesn’t feel like he’s thriving at this moment. He feels cursed and not blessed.

All of this brings us back to Psalm 63.

In his 60s, newly expelled from the throne by his own son, David has just trudged out of Jerusalem. He has shuffled through the dry Judean valleys so that he can cross the Jordan River to safety. Those still loyal to the king make camp, without enough food or water for the journey. David sits on a rock, alone, up on the dry hill, looking out over the desert valley.

And he writes.

God, I long for you.

God, your love is better than life.

God, I need you more than this dry ground needs water.

God, I need you more than my empty stomach needs food.

God, I trust you to restore me.

David is learning to thrive, again, after his most catastrophic failure.

If David could learn to thrive again, why couldn’t you?

If God could and did forgive David, why couldn’t he and wouldn’t he forgive you?

If God can turn the curse of sin into the blessing of salvation for David, couldn’t he for you? He can. He did.

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, because it is written, Everyone who does not do everything written in the book of the law is cursed. Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. But the law is not based on faith; instead, the one who does these things will live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. The purpose was that the blessing of Abraham would come to the Gentiles by Christ Jesus, so that we could receive the promised Spirit through faith. (Galatians 3:10-14)

You don’t have to be miserable as the rotating seasons of life sometimes surprise you. You can learn to thrive with God in every season, whether you’re early on or already fairly far in, whether it’s stormy or muggy or dry, whether you’ve failed big time or small time.

The life of thriving, the life of blessing, is possible. For me and for you.