Perspective is a funny thing.

We cry out to God to get us out of the sameness we have slipped into. We want desperately to leave the old behind, say good-bye to the past, and walk into our new season. And then, when the opportunity comes and we walk through the door into something completely new, we can sometimes falter. We want our old life back!

I can’t help thinking about the Israelites. All those years of crying out in the wilderness about being released from captivity, and then when the release came, they lost their nerve and raised their fists at God. “Why did you lead us here?!” They really thought God had lead them there to die—the very same God who graciously and miraculously led them away from the death grip of Pharaoh.

How easily we misinterpret the discomfort a new season can bring!

I recently came into a new season, and it has been in many ways very messy. It has been perplexing at times. It has been hope-filled at times. It has confounded me. It has excited me.

New can be hard.

Just think about birth. Talk about new! It’s life, from that first breath. But it’s so different from the comfort of the womb, where your life was protected, held, nurtured. Now life is loud, cold, and much more of a struggle. It’s lonelier —but it’s necessary if you are truly going to live as God intended.

And when we have those same struggles in the new life-filled season God wants for us as we grow in Him, we can think, Why did you lead me here, Lord? I was happy back there! We can think something is desperately wrong, that we made a mistake.

My encouragement to you is the same words my friends have ministered to me: Keep going. Don’t give up. God didn’t send you to a new place to leave you alone. He is there with you. He has a plan.

There might be changes all around you—some exhilarating, some overwhelming. But He does not change. He is the constant in a changing season. Hold onto that.

— Laura J. Bagby