WINTER IS REJUVENATION NOT HIBERNATION
[6-minute read]
PEOPLE LIVING IN COUNTRIES THAT HAVE THE FOUR SEASONAL CLIMATES have wardrobes that are adaptive to the temperature changes of summer, autumn, winter and spring. Metaphorically, we use ‘seasons’ to describe different chapters of life because such episodes are usually temporary and transitional. We do our best to navigate through different seasons of life but unlike seasonal climates, it is possible to experience more than one season at the same time. People can be experiencing one season in a relationships (closeness, conflict, repair), another season of living with loss (grief, joy, hope), and another season of career or ministry all at once!
For example, it is possible for an empty nester or a retiree in the autumn of life to also experience winter when a health report arrives with disturbing news along with a new kind of grief and loneliness even when surrounded by people. It is also possible for a breadwinner to face the winter of their career through an unexpected job loss while also welcoming a new baby in the spring of their family life.
Winter is often used to describe the hardest seasons of life when growth is not visible, and on the surface, things appear to be stagnant. While it is common to mistake dormancy for death, and terminals of life transitions as terminations (because stories with sad endings are far more common), winters are seasons of intense personal growth, restoration and rejuvenation. Believers going through their winter seasons with God may not be seen out and about as before, but they can have the richest and most uplifting stories for anyone who cares to approach them.
So if you are going through your winter, embrace this as a time to rest in God, to reflect on your life and His Word, to refresh your perspective and physical well-being, and to recalibrate (even if it requires you to leave and go to a different place). The danger of hyper-grace is to deny it when we are going through our winters and to think that suffering, grief and pain should never be experienced by believers simply because of the grace of God.
Psalm 46:10a is an important reminder for living through the slower winter seasons: “Be still and know that I am God.” It is about “the becoming” that happens in us - necessitated by all that is happening to us. In fact, the wintertime of life offers us two distinct opportunities for growth.
BE STILL IN GOD
Winter is a time to let go of expired and old narratives. It is a time to relinquish the perspectives that we default to that are inadequate for this season. It is a season where God’s promises are not yet visible to us and we must let go of controlling the narrative. It is a time to let go of self-preservation and the coping mechanisms we have been programmed with that are no longer effective for this season.
That’s a lot to take in.
It’s hard to go through winter without deliberately seeking God’s perspective. When the israelites were pursued by the powerful Egyptian soldiers and chariots, Moses urged the people, “The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.’ He was telling the Israelites who cannot unsee the danger before them to also see with divine vision! (Exodus 14:13-14).
We cannot unsee danger and pain. We cannot unsee discriminatory treatment that happens right under our noses. We cannot unsee the alarming medical report that totally disrupted our euphoric outlook on the broken areas of our lives.
But we can also train ourselves to see what God sees. God wants us to see clearly the situations we are facing without watering them down with comforting cliches. At the same time, He also wants us to see who He is in our realities.
When we feel overwhelmed by a multiplicity of realities that we feel ill-prepared for, we should check ourselves into a winter season for recalibration and growth!
When we feel exhausted fighting daily battles, it is time to be still and see if we have lost contact with God in the process! Elijah had his winter season when he ran from Jezebel and into hiding (1 Kings 19:9b-13). He felt all alone, “I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.’” In winter, there is a perception of desertion and abandonment (sometimes, it’s real). But God is not the one who has left the room. In fact, God invited Elijah into His presence (v11) “The Lord said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Our emotional and mental response to extreme stress can feel like an unstabling ‘great and powerful wind, or an earthquake or a fire that threatens our safety, but these forces cannot touch us if we stand still with God. They will all blow over and then…Elijah discerned God’s ‘gentle whisper’ (1 Kings 19:12b-13).
God’s voice is always personal and discernable. There is no need to ‘guess’ what God is saying to us. In the presence of God, Elijah had an honest, open-hearted conversation with Him. And God restored Elijah’s calling to complete God’s mission and assured the prophet that there were still other like-minded followers in Israel. (1 Kings 19:14-18)
KNOW GOD INTIMATELY
‘Yada’ is a Hebrew word meaning ‘to know God intimately and deeply’; it is knowledge that goes beyond information. There are people who can tell us many things about God from the Bible and there are people who will tell us real stories from their lives that demonstrate their living with a true knowledge of who God is to them. This means they make their knowledge of God personal instead of simply making generalized statements about Him.
When we read about God from the Bible, we have to be willing to become open books for others to see His character played out in our lives. This means being willing to submit every situation to God and to prepare our hearts for what He wants to do next!
In reality, those who truly know God…
… will trust Him even more than before.
… will believe Him even more in new situations.
Proverbs 3:5-6 becomes our default posture with God, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
To submit to God is to confess who He is to us. Psalm 9:10 encapsulates this truth, “Those who know Your name trust in You, for You, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek You.”
The song ‘Trust His Heart’ reminds us that
“God is too wise to be mistaken, too good to be unkind. So when you don’t understand, when you don’t see His plan,
when you can’t trace His Hand..
Trust His heart”.
God is always actively preparing us for the season ahead!
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 26 September 2026.
