Sometimes we might feel we are in the transeasonal time in our walk with the Lord or just in life. We feel all so in-between. Maybe you don't but I do. Thankfully, one of the ways in which I have changed in all the heart season of the past six years has been learning to stay in the present. Taking in all that God has around me and it is there just for the noticing. I remember a dream from many years ago. Our family was in Arkansas on the way to Illinois. In real life, this was a road trip that was taken many a time. In this dream, my father wanted to drive in reverse and looking backwards to make the trip. In this dream, I jumped out of the car because I knew it was impossible to drive that way and get where you wanted to go. Like so many times in real life, I was left behind, to fend for myself because I spoke up and voiced some truth. Granted, in real life many times what I voiced was self centered whining, but like the dream, it was if I would rather find myself alone than to take a path and direction that so many in my ancestral tree had taken previously. It was not a good ending for any of them. In transitional times it is always good to remember where you are in the sequence of things. Are you at the beginning, the middle or the end of a transitional time? In transitional times, focus needs to be ahead, not bitter over incidents of regrets in the past. Learn from them and move forward. When Roy's mother was in a rehab hospital, Roy ended his phone conversations to her with the admonition to walk, keep moving, because that is how she would recover. In all those heart years, Roy lovingly reminded me, keep moving, keep looking forward, don't become intertwined with what had happened. Many a day, I did that by faith cause nothing in my flesh wanted to move.
Looking at the twenty years Jacob spent laboring under less than perfect conditions was a transeasonal time. He acquired two wives, two concubines, lots of sheep, lots of goats and a father in law from h#!!. There is a lot of activity in transeasonal times; mentally we might look at it as a static time but it's not. He ran away from Esau but longed for the day when he would return home. As Laban's attitude toward him changed and not for the better, he took the opportunity to leave when Laban was three days away shearing sheep. Laban hotly pursued Jacob and his pursuit took seven days. One night on that trip the Lord spoke to Laban and told him not to talk to Jacob good or bad, leave him alone. Laban mentally recognizes the visit but continues on so he might speak or rather vent to Jacob. Jacob, who has a bit of the deceiver DNA that seems to run in his family has learned a lot and has been pruned by a master of deceit. Toward the end of chapter 31 both Laban and Jacob vent. Laban is looking for his stolen gods, which means he must have stopped by his home before continuing his pursuit of Jacob and the fam and in the midst of Laban dramatically telling of his loss and what he would have done if had only known they wanted to leave...have a big party with singing and music accompanied by tambourines and harps. Again take note, just like the hot bread should have been Isaac's recognition of the deceit of the blessing, Laban goes the same route in his lies by giving unnecessary details. If you don't trust someone, watch what they say and the details they give, cause 9 times out of 10, those extras conceal the lie. Laban searches and goes through everything of Jacobs and he cannot find his stolen gods and at that point, Jacob is when Jacob ditches his fear and gives into that anger that has been brewing the past twenty years.
Genesis 31:36-42
Amplified Bible (AMP)
36 Then Jacob became angry and reproached and argued with Laban. And Jacob said to Laban, What is my fault? What is my sin, that you so hotly pursued me?
37 Although you have searched and felt through all my household possessions, what have you found of all your household goods? Put it here before my brethren and yours, that they may judge and decide between us.
38 These twenty years I have been with you; your ewes and your she-goats have not lost their young, and the rams of your flock have not been eaten by me.
39 I did not bring you [the carcasses of the animals] torn by wild beasts; I bore the loss of it; you required of me [to make good] all that was stolen, whether it occurred by day or by night.
40 This was [my lot]; by day the heat consumed me and by night the cold, and I could not sleep.
41 I have been twenty years in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks; and you have changed my wages ten times.
42 And if the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Dread [lest he should fall] and Fear [lest he offend] of Isaac, had not been with me, surely you would have sent me away now empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and humiliation and the [wearying] labor of my hands and rebuked you last night.
Jacob had had it! The NLT says, you have rummaged through everything I own. On top of everything Laban had violated Jacob's space and possessions. Another thing to look for; the "sin" or "weakness" of the one who imagines they have been deceived may come from the flaw in them and they know how many times they deceived and changed things. Thus, their mindset is revealed in the present and what has happened previously in situations they have been involved in. Sometimes we default to our own practices and in that default much more is revealed, more than anyone really wants others to know.
I better go look at my transeasonal options for the day. Looks like jean capris are the way to go.
I better go look at my transeasonal options for the day. Looks like jean capris are the way to go.
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