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I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. (Philippians 4:10)

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Hot off the heals of Paul\u2019s invitation to practice what they have learned and seen, Paul immediately begins to talk of how the Philippians have indeed practiced what they have seen Paul live and teach!\xa0 Unsurprisingly, their practice of generosity has brought Paul to rejoicing.\xa0

It is not as if, therefore, Paul was scolding the Philippians before.\xa0 It was not as if the only news in Philippi was bad news about fights between these two women Euodia and Syntyche and others that demanded correction.\xa0 No: the same life lived in the mindset of Christ Jesus that Paul has traced and invited, he now brings the Philippians to recognize already within themselves, too.\xa0

The imagery behind the phrase \u201cat last you renewed your concern for me\u201d is an image drawn from nature.\xa0 It is a picture of Spring\u2014of life bursting forth from the dirt and branches after a long season of death and stillness.\xa0 There was a season when the Philippians had \u201cno opportunity to show\u201d their concern, but now the seasons have changed and their concern for Paul has visibly sprung back to life once again.

Whatever else may be drawn from this passage, there at least can be a recognition that our practice of the Christian life ebbs and flows.\xa0 There is a seasonality to the things we practice.\xa0 We are not perpetual motion machines that mechanically repeat the exact same patterns of life and faith from birth to death.\xa0 We are not assembly line robots.\xa0 No: we are living things.\xa0 And so there are seasons when we are able to give and seasons when we are unable.\xa0 Seasons when we are able to serve and others in which we are not.\xa0 The familiar words of Ecclesiastes 3 come to mind: there is time for every activity under heaven, like \u201ca time to plant and a time to uproot.\u201d\xa0

This notion perhaps runs against the grain of our sensibilities.\xa0 On the one hand\u2014we know this to be true.\xa0 Even when, like the Philippians we remain concerned for everything\u2014that doesn\u2019t mean that we can actually do everything all the time\u2014we have limited time and resources.\xa0 On the other hand though, we can feel guilty about this.\xa0 Aren\u2019t we supposed to be unfailingly faithful in every good spiritual discipline like Bible reading, prayer, giving, serving, etc?\xa0 The trick, perhaps, is to recognize that faithfulness does not lock us to a static, unchanging routine.\xa0

Just as a good workout routine will employ variation to alternate the working and resting of different muscle groups at different times, so a good routine of spiritual discipline will shift around the burden to different areas of our spiritual capacity over time to ensure a mature, well-rounded relationship with God and our neighbours.

In her\xa0Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, Adele Ahlberg Calhoun says it this way: \u201cLike every other living thing, humans have seasons.\xa0 Winter, summer, autumn and spring are real places on the spiritual journey. These seasons cycle through our lives bringing times of fruit-bearing, root-deepening, drought and deep waiting.\xa0 No matter how old or young we are, seasons come and go and return to come and go again.\xa0 Some disciplines can be more suited to one season than another. When choosing a spiritual discipline, pay attention to your spiritual season\u201d (p. 326).\xa0

God calls us into different practices in different seasons: different forms of attentiveness to our relationship with him and our neighbours.\xa0 The point in all this, no matter the changes, is that we remain faithfully attentive to these relationships with God and neighbour.\xa0

So: where are you at in the seasons of life?\xa0 What grace does God speak to you today in terms of inviting you to pick up or lay down different activities of faithful spiritual discipline?\xa0

If you\u2019d like to read further, let me know and I can forward you a copy of Calhoun\u2019s 8-page guide to discerning the season you\u2019re in and the spiritual disciplines that might be appropriate to it.\xa0 This is a good part of the work of faith formation across the seasons of our lives.

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