If you feel like you’re just going through the motions in life, gritting your teeth as you trudge along doing mundane things that feel so insignificant, even meaningless, I’m writing to you. Because that’s where I find my heart today. I’m feeling stuck in a particular season of life, a quiet season that feels insignificant—almost lame and very lonely. And I’ve found my heart hosting a grand pity party in honor of the plain, unglamorous life I lead these days. Slowly but surely, the lie that this season is worthless has crept into my heart and set up camp. “Worthless” has laid claim to me for months, and I’ve longed for a different season, surely a better season, to come along so that I could start feeling useful instead of useless. I wonder if that’s where you find your heart, too.
- Are you despising the halls of your high school and the homework assigned to you each day? Do you long for the day you’ll start making a real difference once you arrive to a college campus?
- Are you groaning through every class at college, believing you’re useless until you finally enter the “real world”?
- Do you dream of a different job or a different set of skills or a different sphere of influence than the one you currently have?
- Have you bought into the idea that God can’t use a young woman like you?
Do you believe that if your entire set of circumstances were different, then you could be used by God? Then you could be significant, effective, energized, and faithful?
No season is useless. No season is meaningless.
The thread that unites these thoughts is deception, spoken by the enemy. If he can trap us into believing our current seasons are worthless, he can render us ineffective for God’s kingdom, season after season. But God is powerful enough to free us from the lies. The truth is: No season is useless. No season is meaningless. Your years as a student are not worthless. Your single years are not worthless. Your minimum wage job is not worthless. Your teenage years are not worthless. God wants to work out His purposes and plan in you and through you, no matter your stage of life. He is God; He can take any seemingly meaningless thing and turn it into something stunning and glorious.
Making the Best Use of the Time
This is His call to us:
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is (Eph. 5:15–17, emphasis added).
Let’s zone in on that little phrase, “making the best use of the time.” Today I listened to a message on this passage in Ephesians. I’ve heard it before, but God spoke afresh to my heart through Dr. Eric Mason’s words and made me painfully aware of how much I’ve been wasting time. This is the phrase that stuck to my heart. I hope it sticks to yours as well: “Maximize every season the Lord gives you.” Maximize: to increase (something) as much as possible; to use (something) in a way that will get the best result. How can you and I begin to maximize each season of life God has sovereignly, wisely, and graciously given to us? Here are two steps we can take in the right direction.
1. Stop comparing.
You look around and see how other girls are serving in your youth group, how they’re doing awesome things on social media, how they’re reaching others with a blog or an outreach, and you want that kind of ministry, too. Soon, tunnel vision develops in your soul, blinding you to the ways you don’t measure up to those girls—and you stop being effective for God altogether. I’ve been there. I’m prone to develop a serious case of ministry envy, longing for the ways they serve with the skills they have, instead of seeing the opportunities right in front of me. I love the straightforward way Dr. Mason says it: “You gotta stop the comparison ministry.” Not only does comparison steal our joy, but it also makes us less effective for God.
Not only does comparison steal our joy, but it also makes us less effective for God.
We need to stop looking around feeling envious of the ways God is using others. He does have a mission for us—but we need to start looking to Him, asking for our individual mission, instead of wishing for someone else’s mission. Set aside the weight of comparison, and begin to pray that God would show you the opportunities right in front of you in your current season.
2. Start doing.
As you pray for opportunities, and as you begin to recognize them, don’t let them pass by. Go for it. Jump at the chance to serve God with passion in your heart and fire in your soul. If we value every season and we pray intentionally for ways to maximize the time, we won’t want to waste a moment.
Don’t let discouragement and the enemy’s deception keep you from action. Start doing. Start going. Start serving.
The enemy wants to convince us to wait for a season that’s down the road in the future, but God says, “Make the most of the time you have today.” So don’t let discouragement and the enemy’s deception keep you from action. Start doing. Start going. Start serving. Start praying and studying the Word and worshiping Him. Maximize every season. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people (Titus 3:8). Lord, stamp this permanently onto our hearts: “No matter what season you’re in, never see anything as mundane and useless” (Dr. Mason). Are you in a season that feels mundane and useless? How can you start maximizing the time by serving God right where you’re at?