Lessons from the Fallow Season: Spring Always Rises
As a farm girl, spring marked the beginning of the gardening season. The garden plot west of the farmhouse beckoned. It called me to begin implementing those plans I’d been building in my mind since January as I paged through the Gurney Seed catalog.
I reveled in the earthy smell of freshly turned soil. I stepped off and staked space for tidy rows of vegetables mirroring those in my seed catalog. I mapped out my plots for hills of squash and mounds for sweet potatoes. I was full of daydreams of summer afternoons and bountiful harvests. It was go-time once again, and I was ready for the task.
In the natural world, the end of the fallow season and the beginning of spring are obvious. The bright green shoots push upward into the apricity of a late winter afternoon. We are stunned by a yellow crocus poking through the slushy snow or a brave tulip venturing out into a pocket of sunlight. Tight buds appear on the bare branches. The new season is marked by fresh growth.
What is easy to see in the natural world may be less easy to detect within, for fallow seasons of the soul do not always follow the ebb and flow of nature’s seasons. However, one similarity is worth noting. Just as the fresh green grass rises through the leftover brown stubble of winter, so He brings forth the new growth in us, that will mark a new season.
A fallow season of the soul prompts us to do the hard, quiet work in secret places. It asks us to revisit the ancient truth of Scripture. It urges us to plunge into its depth and marvel once again over God’s intricately woven redemption plan set in place before the foundations of the earth. Fallow seasons of the soul ask us to revisit the basics of prayer and faithful obedience, not as a chore, but as a means of reconnecting us with the true strength, beauty, and power of walking in communion with the Lord of All Creation.
As we dust off these ancient and beautiful practices, our God will likely stir a new dream within us. Perhaps He will begin to break up the fallow ground of our heart with thoughts of a new ministry venture, a writing project, or a bold step of faithful obedience. Perhaps He will resurrect an old dream that long ago, we relegated to the junk pile of outlandish ideas. As He does so, I beg you to notice—to listen and pay attention. In time, He will drop into the soil of our hearts the precious seeds of that new dream. Through our prayers and faithful obedience, slowly but surely, He will bring it to fruition. For He says in Scripture:
“See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:19
Perhaps He is stirring you toward dreams that are larger than you planned—God-sized dreams that can only be accomplished in His strength and by His wisdom. What will this require of you? What sort of growth, what sort of stretching or expanding? What sort of preparation?
In the Scriptures, God tells us there is a time for everything and a purpose for every season. There are fallow seasons for regeneration and rebuilding. There is also a time to break up the fallow ground, tear out the old briars, enlarge our fields, and plant more than we have in former days. He says:
“Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns. Jeremiah 4:3
After we have spent the fallow season delving deeper into His word and plumbing its depths, our souls will be ready when He stirs the fallow soil of our hearts. When He begins to cultivate a new area of growth, we can step readily into that new endeavor with deeper insight and strength.
After we have shored up the foundation stones of prayer and faithful obedience, stepping into the new endeavor He is planting and cultivating is the next natural step forward. He will provide the strength and clarity as we step forward in faithful obedience.
After we’ve re-established prayer as our vehicle for cultivating a rich and abiding relationship with God, we can lean into it as our spiritual communication system. Prayer becomes more about stepping into His presence, dwelling with Him, and learning His heart. Though raising our heartfelt petitions is important and needful, prayer becomes less about getting immediate answers to our requests and more about cultivating an intimate friendship with God.
He will speak in the stillness and intimacy of that space, and we will know what He wants of us—today and in the days to come.
Spring will rise in our souls once the fallow season has done its work within us.
It is as natural as bare branches swelling with new life. It is as lovely and welcome as the sight of gold and purple crocus rising through the muddy slush, as natural as the fresh green hues overtaking the brown fields. For just as it has been since the dawn of time, spring never ceases to arise from the frozen fields of winter.