Foundation - Intro to 5 Seasons

Hi friends! Life moves in seasons — and they shape who we become. This episode, Nick breaks down what these seasons really mean and how to spot which one you're in right now. Because once you know your season, you stop stalling and start thriving.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well, welcome back to the show. If you're just checking out the vibe today, we're gonna be diving into what I consider is one of the more important parts of your discipleship journey and as you disciple others. So today we are gonna be talking about um the five seasons of life that you will find yourself in. Now, this will be just an intro. There will be a larger breakdown later on in our podcast series. But for now, I want to whet your appetite for what this can do for your discipleship individually and for those that you are trying to disciple. So if you're ready, buckle up, let's get ready to go.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hey friends, welcome to the Be Rooted Podcast with your host, Nick Kugler, author, discipler, and your guide on this journey. Around here, we mix ancient and modern wisdom with real life principles so that you can grow deep roots and live out your faith intentionally. So let's stay curious and dive in.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

So today we are going to talk about the five seasons of life that you are inevitably gonna find yourself in. You won't find these five seasons overtly in scripture. And the language that I use is kind of specific, but hopefully this language will grow on you and you'll begin to understand what I mean by it. Um, and there are some reasons for it. We might not get into the reasons why just yet, um, but hopefully we'll be able we'll start start you down a path so that this will make a lot of sense later when we dig in a little bit deeper. So the reality is you will find yourself going through seasons of life. Sometimes you find yourself struggling, sometimes you find yourself in a place where you have abundance, sometimes you find yourself where you just don't know what's going on. And each one of these seasons has with it this kind of felt need that needs to be kind of nurtured. And how do you know how to get where you're supposed to go if you don't fully know where you are today? So as we identify these different seasons, I want you to ask yourself, where are you today? Um, do you see yourself in your past in some of these seasons that you're not in now? Um you will inevitably see yourself in a different one in the future as well. So let's dive in. And I also want to point out that the picture that you see here is on the front of my podcast cover, and you'll see it in a lot of my materials. And visually, I hope you you start to see the reason why this is designed the way it is. God gave me this vision years and years ago, and He's been clarifying and refining it for a long time. It might shift and adapt even throughout this podcast as we grow. But for right now, I want you to see what I see and what God has shown me through these images. I've already covered in the four growth areas that we've already touched on a little bit, um, and we are going to dive in a little bit deeper in the future. But for now, I want you to also see some of the spaces that exist around this wheel of discipleship. You got one here, you got some here, here, here, and here. So those five spaces are what I call the five seasons of life that you find yourself in. Now, I'm gonna put a list over here of what those spaces are, but I want you to show you why and how they interact with one another as well. So on this side here, you have the S side, and on this side here, you have the G side. If you ever try to explain this to somebody else, it'll help you to remember this. And then in the middle you have the S and G side, or the S and G, that you that you have both. So on the left side of this discipleship circle, the first season of life that we'll get into is the season of seeking. And you'll find that in the upper left-hand corner of this. So a season of seeking is identified by something that you don't know that you're trying to find. And I mean, it sounds kind of simple, right? We always find ourselves in this spot and we go, I just don't know. I don't know what I need, I don't know how to get it, I don't either have the tools or I don't have the materials to do what I feel like God wants me to do, so I'm seeking it. Sometimes you're seeking knowledge, sometimes you're you're you're you're seeking experience, but there's something that's missing, and you're trying to find that. These seasons can be short or they can be long. And the question isn't always, you know, how do I get out of this season? So I don't want you to necessarily think, how can I find the thing that I'm looking for so that I can get out of this season of seeking? So I can because oftentimes we can be performance-oriented around these things, or we can just want out just because we don't like the space that we're in. It doesn't feel good. And I'm a guy who loves to know things, I love to have purpose and drive. And sometimes these seasons of seeking can be very intentionally, or I can struggle with them. I struggle with them because I like to know. And one of the identifying characteristics of the season of seeking is I just don't know. Well, let's move on to the next one, and it's below that, and that's the season of soaking. I find myself here probably more than I'd like to be, but probably not often enough, if I'm being honest. Because the season of soaking is is I don't have something. Maybe I don't have the energy, maybe I don't have the space or the time, and and what I really need to do is I need to step away and receive the thing that I'm that I'm missing. Often it's probably because I've spent too much time forcing myself into another season and I've bled myself dry. I don't have enough physical energy, spiritual energy, emotional energy, or I just have lost focus and I need to receive that focus again. Does that sound familiar? Have you ever gotten to a space in your life where you just don't feel like you have enough to give? Maybe you just need to receive. Maybe you need to let some of that soak into you. I honor I mentioned it in my self video, and sometimes this can look like self-care. Jesus is one of the best examples of this. When he spent time serving people and teaching the crowds and the multitudes, it says in scripture that he often went away to be alone with his father, to pray. And I think what he one of the big things he was doing is he was soaking in the presence of his father. He was reconnecting and receiving something. He was filling himself back up so that he could give himself back out. And if we're only doing the giving, then we don't have the energy to continue to give if we continue to do that if without receiving. And that brings me to the next uh season that you might find yourself in, and that is on the opposite side of seeking, and that is the season of giving. If this side of the circle or the S side of the circle says I don't have something or I don't know something, then the other side says I do have it. So if you're in a season of giving, it's because God has given you abundance. Maybe he's given you abundance of extra time because you've just entered in a season of retirement. Maybe he's given you an abundance of energy. Maybe he's given you an abundance of wealth. Maybe he hasn't actually given you abundance, but you feel like you should be giving anyway out of what you do have. Because we don't all have the same quantity, but that doesn't mean we're not in the same space of giving. So what do you have to offer? Maybe it's knowledge or wisdom. Maybe there's something inside of you that is stirring to take your experience and your story, in your testimony, and give that to somebody else. Maybe your story can help somebody to avoid some maybe some landmines in in their life. Maybe some of the roads that you have gone down or some of the roadblocks that you found yourself up against, maybe you can give your experience to another person and they can learn from you. And that brings me to the other um season on the G side, and that's the season of growing. When you find yourself in the season, it can often feel good, but it doesn't always have to. Because sometimes growing happens in ways that stretch us, in ways that that cause tension, cause even some pain. I was reading a book the other day, and uh the the pastor or the pastor, the guy that was writing the book, his name's Joby Martin, and he has a good way of quipping out statements, and he goes, Everybody wants to get bigger, but nobody wants the pain that gets them there. Like when I'm working in a gym, like like we wanna, if we're pumping weights and we we want to get stronger, we want to get bigger, but we don't always like the pain that comes alongside of that. But the truth is those tension points or those points of pain often are the things that grow us. So, but one of the key areas of this is you you know what God's doing. When you say God is growing me, you usually know where he's growing you. Sometimes he's growing you in knowledge, sometimes he's helping you to understand something new and real about yourself, and then how to apply that to your life. And then the last one. And it's the S and G. You find it in the middle, and it's the season of struggle. There's not a single person that gets out of this life without experiencing a season of struggle. If I'm being honest, I don't think that there's a single person that goes through life and doesn't experience all of these. But here's something interesting about struggle. Struggle lands in the middle for a reason. Because this is my experience when I walk alongside of people, and even when I reflect on my own life, is you generally don't go from one season to another without going through struggle. I don't find myself in a place where I'm giving and then just jump into soaking very often. Honestly, I think that would be a great way to do it, and I think that's actually what Jesus exampled is when he was giving, he was giving, he was giving, he intentionally put spaces of soaking in his life so that he didn't burn out. Until it was his time, I would say. I don't always do that. I find myself giving and giving and giving until my head hits the floor or my knees hit the floor and I go, oh, I don't have anything left. Well, that's because you haven't been receiving, dummy. So I find myself going through this season of struggle. Maybe it's illness, maybe it's just fatigue, maybe it borders on depression or lethargy. But God says, okay, dude, it's time for you to slow down because I have something that you need. You need some energy, you need some encouragement. You need something filling you up so that I can prepare you for the next season that you're in or that you're gonna go into. But here's what I do: I find myself in a season that I don't like. Maybe it's a season of struggle or a season of soaking or a season of seeking, because I'd love to be able to give and I love it when I'm growing, but I don't always like it when I don't know something or I don't have something. So I try to get myself out of that struggle. Or I try to get myself out. I try to force myself to learn or to find the thing that I'm missing. Oftentimes I miss what God's truly doing in my life. And it is until I submit myself to the season that I'm in for a moment and say, okay, God, I'm here. Maybe I have to learn something. Maybe you just need me to be here for a while. And maybe that's what you need. Maybe you just need to let yourself be. It was interesting. My my daughter actually taught me something about my own teaching here. And and I asked her, I said, Well, what season are you in? And I'm like, we talked about this, and she goes, Man, I just feel like I'm been soaking. And I asked her a question, and I said, So how long do you think God wants you to be there? And she gave me the best answer I think anybody could ever give. She goes, I don't know. So that's a really good answer because I don't know either. But when you ask yourself that question, you can follow it up with two more that I think are important. How long have I been here? Have I been here too long? Or have I have I not been here long enough? And it gives you the opportunity to ask yourself and to and to really be honest and say, yeah, I haven't received everything that I need. I am still tired. Or maybe I'm growing and I and I say, man, I don't think God's done growing me here yet. Maybe he's growing my patience and I still struggle with anxiety. And he wants me to grow more in this area. So I don't think you get to and through these areas very often without going through struggle. Now, I do also want to highlight something for the future on podcast. And some of you might be asking yourself this question can I be in more than one season at once? And the answer is absolutely. And we will get into that and we will talk about some of the specific ways that you can identify these kind of what I would call mixed seasons of life. And the reality is sometimes you can be in one season of life in one place and another season of life in another. Maybe your work life, you're you're in a great spot where you have opportunities to give, but maybe your home life is struggling. Maybe you your family is doing really good, but you're going through a health crisis. So there are different nuances to the ways that you can look at this, but the point is this: where are you now? And how does that impact how you get to where God wants you to go? How does it impact who God is calling you to be? So, my challenge for you today, your intentional step moving forward from this is to sit and ask yourself these questions. Do I have what I need? Is God asking me to find something? Do I need to seek something? Do I need to seek some information? Do I need to find a relationship? Do I need to discover something new about myself? Do I need to find a place to serve? Do I need to find a church family to plug into? What is it that I'm seeking that will help me to become more like Christ intended me to come be to become in his image? So the last thing that I want you to see, and this could help you answer this question. You have the don't side and you have the do side. You have like if you can say, if you say to yourself, I don't, and that's where, and that talks about where you're, then you're probably on this side. That's the first filter that you look at. And then you go, okay, what is it that I don't? Do I not have something? Do I not know something? And that'll tell you where you're at here. If you're struggling, you probably already know that. So the question for you there is, how long have you been in this? Do you have any control over it whatsoever? If if you're struggling through something that you have no control over, then let go. But if you're struggling because you've made some bad decisions and you've and you're wallowing in some mistakes that you have made, then how do you get yourself out? Maybe what you need is somebody to help you through that. So maybe you you're in a place where you're struggling and seeking at the same time. But God has something good in store for you. And if you follow your path of discipleship, it will result in you becoming more like Him in the unique way that He designed you to become more like Him. So ask yourself, what season am I in?

SPEAKER_00 18:09

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