September has always felt when the real ‘new
year’ actually commences: from the beginning of the academic year with its
deluge of first day at school snaps (the joys of Instagram – one can partake in
all my little friends’ first big days!), through to the fashion week footage I
scroll through each day and all the email drops from websites I have no
business subscribing to with enticing titles such as ‘Your Most Stylish Season Yet’, ‘Beautiful
Coats and Outerwear Just Added’ or the more to the point ‘Just In: Erdem, The Row and Prada’ (hey,
why waste valuable click consideration time when you can just put the key ‘key
words’ right up front?). Add to this the
fact that if one is anywhere in the northern hemisphere the weather takes a
distinct change both in shortening days and increasing chill factor, and you have
the perfect storm for considering making changes be they in clothing,
activities or attitude. No matter that technically it’s the fourth and final
quarter of the calendar year, here’s one final signpost to try, do and be
something new with vigour and more critically, purpose.
Purpose is one of those topics like love,
faith, money and destiny that appear in the bible plentifully. Call them season
perennials (like denim for instance) but they are riffed upon, extrapolated upon
and in prayer and fellowship groups debated over at length. The fact that purpose
probably gets as much consideration time as it does is because it goes to the
heart of the matter of who we are, why we’re here and what we are meant to do
in the interim between birth and eternity:
“Many
are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21
This particular verse, landing in the latter
part of Proverbs 19 is both a cautionary warning and encouragement all in one.
You see, no-one can cover all bases quite like the word of the Lord as this
verse reveals. The first part: ‘many are
the plans in a person’s heart’ resonates because here is the thing; even
when we have a clear idea of the direction we wish to take and the pace at
which we want to do it, things can still go awry. We can have so many ideas, maybe
even too many plans and thoughts of both ways forward and exactly what our end
destination looks like. Even when we know a lot, we still do not know it all, as
the second part of the verse reveals pertinently, ‘but it is the Lord’s purpose
that prevails.’ Humility in approach is critical to living dynamically in the
Lord. An appreciation that however fantastic our own self generated ideas and
plans are, to truly flourish they must be rooted in and directed by an eternal
agenda cannot be underestimated. Rather than diminishing our role, making us
mere pawns in our Almighty’s already pre-destined master-plan, it elevates all
of us to the role of co-creator, participating actively and intimately in God’s
work – being utilized in our own unique way to manifest his glory, to solve
problems, to sow love, hope and joy.
As I type this, I am going through quite
the transition season of my own, as I step into fully what I am meant to be
doing in my life and with no lingering sideway glances or worse yet, backward
ones into what was or indeed, could have been. To say such seasons are not filled
with trepidation would be gratuitous mendacity on my part. I oscillate between
fearing that this is mad-cap postulation of my own design, to querying that if
this is exactly what I am meant to be doing then why the flip was I not doing
it sooner? But because God is kind and
gracious I have been receiving signs
aplenty that this precisely where I am meant to be and what I am meant to be doing,
and guess what maybe sooner would have actually been a hot mess and later is
actually, just right. Obviously, not all is in place: sartorially, I am still
searching for the perfect coat (among other things), and there has been a
mentalist sweep in terms of how I spend my time, who I spend it with and how I
use my particular gifting, but if like the author of Proverbs implores, I
remain focused on the Lord’s purposes prevailing in my activities, these
seasonal adjustments can actually be more fun than stressful. If as you read this things are resonating and you
are having a bit of a moment in this new season and final quarter of the year, look
no further than Proverbs 19:21 to keep you hope filled, excited and poso as you
work towards being all that you are called to be. Because this blog is called Cool
Chic and in Christ I end with, my (so far) winning look from the Fashion Week
Season, courtesy of the one and only Tom Ford. If the good Lord had gifted with
me the legs to do this ensemble justice (or helps me with the discipline to do
the necessary lunges and squats to transform what I currently have in time for
Spring Summer 2018), I will be wondering next summer dressed like this.
