Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets
In midnights, in cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife
In five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?

Seasons of love (love)
Seasons of love (love)

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand journeys to plan
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?
(Measure, measure your life in love)

These lyrics to this song ‘Seasons of Love’ from the musical Rent have really resonated with me this last year.  Serving as an overseas Officer (clergy-person) in the United Kingdom has meant I have found myself in unfamiliar territory and often feeling a little lost and sometimes longing for the familiar and known.  I would find myself measuring myself and my time by all the things I was no longer achieving or accomplishing.  I found myself struggling to find my purpose.

Then one day, I heard this song with fresh ears and felt like God was speaking directly to me. He was saying that I was measuring my life by the wrong things. I was putting the wrong importance on superficial things and missing out on all the good things that God had gifted me with. God began teaching me that this is a new season and that this new season was actually a gift the Lord has given me and not one to reject or fight against.

It was not the living in a new country that I struggled with, but the work patterns and the new family routines. When I first arrived, I was basically a stay-at-home mom because we could not afford full time child care for both of our girls. So one daughter went to child care three days a week and the other one stayed home with me every day. We had an appointment for six months at Divisional Headquarters, an office setting where children could not be brought to work.  So, I stayed with my girls.

At the beginning, I did not like staying home full-time. I felt I was not living out my purpose as an officer. I was not doing what I was sent here to do.

The Holy Spirit began to teach me though that this time with my girls was a gift that only God could orchestrate. A gift of a new season in the life of my family, one I did not ask for or even know I needed, but a gift nonetheless.

That’s when the lyrics of this song began to speak to me. How do I accept this gift of a new season with joy? How will I measure this time in my life? Will I reject this gift, kicking and screaming the whole way, or I will readily accept it and learn to measure my life in a different way? Will I accept the gift this new season is and allow myself to celebrate time with my girls and time with friends and time with Jesus? Will I revel in the daily giggles of two little girls and little tea parties or wish them away? Will I measure my life by the love I have shown my family members or by the meetings I missed?

Will I only remember all the paperwork I didn’t get done and the sermons I never got to preach or will I celebrate the visits to the park and laughter and joy of spending time with my girls?

Then one day – it all changed again! I found myself in another new season. A season where I was a busy corps officer, balancing motherhood and officership and struggling to keep it all together. The last season didn’t last long and I found myself, once again, in a new situation. My days were filled with paperwork and meetings and visits to corps people – and I found myself missing the laughter of my girls.

It was a new season, another gift from God, but this time I knew to accept it and treasure it.

If you are in an unfamiliar season of your life right now, don’t kick against it, don’t shout and cry about it. Embrace and bask in it. Thank God for the gift of different life seasons.  Decide to measure this new season not by what you didn’t achieve or couldn’t do, but rather by the love and the laughter and all the new things you could do. Before you know it, the seasons will change again and you will be given a new gift.

Whatever this season is, embrace the gift of this season.

Capt. Sandra Pobjie-Pawar is an Australian-born and raised Salvation Army officer, who has served mostly in the United States.  Currently, she and her family live and minister in London.