When I was growing up at a Christian school, we sang a variation of the Byrd’s “Turn! Turn! Turn!” at least once a month in chapel, usually accompanied on a guitar by one of the chaplains. It was a fun song that usually brought a bit more energy than pretty much any of the other chapel music besides the theologically suspect “Chapel Safari.” While I didn’t know that “Turn! Turn! Turn!” had its roots in this passage from Ecclesiastes, I learned from that song about the manner in which so much of time must follow a cycle of seasons (and not the ones that school taught us).
There have been moments in my life when I simply didn’t have the words to pray: I could only produce some strange unformed sounds that I didn’t know how to voice. There have been seasons when all that I was able to do was allow my tears to be my offering to God. But there have also been times when I could do nothing but rejoice, to thank the Almighty for the blessings that He poured down upon me like a never-ceasing rain shower.
We live in a world where we will experience hardships as often as we will the overwhelming joys for which we hope and pray. While this reality is one that we don’t always like to acknowledge, it is true. Despite what many of us were taught as children, life does not function as a graph where if we work hard and do the right things our lives will be easy and we will grow. We will inevitably find ourselves in seasons when we simply cannot do things in the ways that we have done them in the past.
When we think about how we wish to incorporate the spiritual practices of Overflow into our everyday lives, into a Rule of Life, it is helpful for us to think with the understanding that there will be seasons when things have shifted so that we struggle to do things in the ways to which we have become accustomed. The practices that we might find easy and helpful in the moments when we feel the most blessed often become a near impossibility when we feel as though the world is falling down upon our heads.
For me, this reality means that I tend to view my Rule of Life as having a Plan A and a Plan B mentality. I know what I need to keep myself present and growing in my relationship with God during the times when everything is going the way that I’d like for it to go; that’s my Plan A Rule of Life. I also like to form a couple of backup plans for ways to find renewal and refocus in the seasons when life is not nearly as easy. It is helpful to keep all of the disciplines we have studied in one’s back pocket so they are available when we are struggling to see God’s presence.