Learning to Read the Seasons God Has Given Us

Learning the Seasons of Missions 

During our recent team devotion, the sharing touched on Ecclesiastes for our devotional this January, and it quietly stayed with me. Maybe because it met us right where we were. A new year always tempts us to reinvent ourselves, to rush into becoming newer, better, louder versions of who we were before. But this verse does something gentler. It slows us down. It reminds us that while we have seen many versions of ourselves over the years, God has remained the same. 

As a missions organization, we often talk about calling, obedience, and impact. But Ecclesiastes invites us to talk about seasons. About timing. About the fact that faithfulness does not always look like forward motion. Sometimes it looks like waiting. Sometimes it looks like grieving. Sometimes it looks like quietly showing up again. 

Here are five things a missions minded person can take away from this passage. 

1. God moves through seasons, not pressure 

“There is a time for everything” is not God asking us to hurry up or catch up. It is God reminding us that growth is seasonal. In missions, we often want fruit immediately. We want visible change, clear results, measurable wins. But planting and uprooting happen in different moments. Faithfulness in one season does not always look impressive in another. If you are in a slow or hidden season, that does not mean God is absent. It may mean He is being precise. 

2. Even hard seasons are acknowledged by God 

This passage does not sanitize life. It names death, grief, silence, injustice, and even war. That matters. God does not pretend everything is fine, and neither should we. In missions work, there is a quiet pressure to always be hopeful, always strong, always okay. Ecclesiastes gives us permission to be human. To weep when it is time to weep. To mourn when it is time to mourn. God is not disappointed by your honesty. He already accounted for it. 

3. Faithfulness is found in the work itself 

“What do workers gain from their toil?” is a question many of us carry, especially when the work feels repetitive or unseen. God’s response is simple and profound. The work itself is the gift. Not the recognition. Not the outcome. Not the legacy. In missions, much of what we do will never be celebrated. But obedience done quietly still matters. God sees faithfulness long before anyone else does. 

4. We are not meant to understand the whole story 

God has set eternity in the human heart, yet we cannot fully grasp what He is doing from beginning to end. That tension is not a flaw. It is part of faith. Missions is not about mastering the plan of God. It is about trusting Him within it. There will be unanswered questions. There will be outcomes we never get to see. That does not mean the work is meaningless. It means God is bigger than our timeline. 

5. Joy is not a distraction from the mission 

This might be the most countercultural takeaway. Eat. Drink. Enjoy your work. Scripture does not frame joy as indulgence but as a gift. Rest is not laziness. Gratitude is not weakness. A joyless servant is not more spiritual than a grateful one. God invites us to live fully in the season we are in, not postpone joy until everything feels resolved. 

Ecclesiastes reminds us that life is layered. That calling unfolds over time. That God is not rushed, threatened, or surprised by our seasons. As a missions community, we will walk through different eras together. Some loud and fruitful. Some quiet and refining. All held by the same faithful God. 

We do not need to force the next season to arrive. We only need to be faithful where we are. 

As we step into this new year, take time to name your current season honestly. Not the one you hope for, but the one you are actually in. Ask God what obedience looks like here. Serve with patience. Work with gratitude. Choose joy without guilt. And trust that in His time, He is making everything beautiful.