Barren to Beautiful - SHE Is Awakening Seasonal Journal | WINTER - Week 8

Happy New Week. We are in the final stretch of walking through this winter season, and I am so grateful that you are here.

And I wanted to go ahead and start mentioning something for the next several weeks. It's something new that is going to be taking place this spring.

With the start of of the spring season, the weekly Sunday episodes, like what you're listening to right now, that walk through the Seasonal Journal will have its own podcast, the She Is Awakening Seasonal Journal podcast.

And I'm excited about that. We decided to have a completely separate podcast for the Seasonal Journal.

And the podcast that you're listening to right now, the Susan Beth podcast, It's going to continue as it has with solo episodes from me and conversations with other people sprinkled in.

So I'm excited for those new things that are going to be coming this spring as things are growing around here.

So this week's focus in the Winter Seasonal Journal is titled, Barren to Beautiful.

Life is a journey that is filled with seasons, and each season is characterized by its unique challenges and opportunities. And among the seasons that we each walkthrough, there are seasons of barrenness. And this word is oftentimes associated with childbearing, but barrenness, it can be connected to many things, lands, and crops, as well as many aspects in our lives.

Barrenness is a time when the landscape of our lives appears to lack growth and abundance, which can leave us dealing with uncertainty.

However, barren seasons are part of the human experience. experience. As uncomfortable as they are, they offer us profound lessons in perseverance as well as personal growth. And barren seasons can leave us feeling disheartened and directionless.

But it's in these seasons that we can experience an even deeper connection and experience with God.

And it's not that God can only show himself strong in our lives when we walk through winter seasons.

But in seasons where things are barren, distractions are removed, and we are invited to the space of solitude to be nourished with fresh life and light. And it's in these seasons because those things are removed that we tend to be more receptive to the light and the darkness and it's a beautiful and brutal season of growth and learning about God and ourselves where we are reminded once again where our true life source and abundance comes from.

The verse from this week's focus is found in John chapter 1, verses 3 through 5, and I'm reading from the Message Bible. It says,

everything was created through him.

Nothing, not one thing came into being without him.

What came into existence was life, and the life was light to live by.

The life flight blazed out of the darkness.

The darkness couldn't put it out.

I love how that reads.

Once again, we have the opportunity to re-evaluate our priorities and how we are choosing to live our lives, realigning our paths to walk out our true God-designed purpose.

Barren seasons are transformative and can lead us to a more authentic and fulfilling life. And just as winter seasons precede the blooms of spring, the stories and scars of our winter seasons that attempted to break and silence us, awaken and give birth to all that was purposed and planted inside of us before we ever breathe our first breath in this realm.

Here are some prompts that I want to invite you to pray and to process through this week.

Have you experienced a season that felt barren?

Do you recognize the life-light that blazed out of the darkness of your life?

What are some of your stories and scars that awakened something within you?

I'd love to offer up a prayer as we close out this focus.

Father, thank you for the light that you provide for each of us in walking through the darkness of a winter season.

We once again place our hope and our trust in your goodness and trust you with all you have for us.

We love you and we are looking to you always.