The End of Summer, the Start of Something

Sunday, August 30, 2026

Carmen

LGBTQIA+ Person of Faith

Quote

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”

~Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NRSV)

Devotion

There’s a particular feeling to the last weekend of August. You can sense autumn approaching even if the weather hasn’t changed yet. The light shifts. The evenings cool down just slightly. Something is ending, and something else is beginning, and we’re standing right in the middle of that transition.

As a Queer person, I’ve always found the rhythm of seasons oddly comforting. Seasons don’t ask permission to change. They don’t apologize for becoming something different. Summer doesn’t cling to spring, and autumn doesn’t pretend it’s still summer.

I think the writer of Ecclesiastes understood this. There’s a season for everything - for planting and uprooting, for weeping and laughing, for embracing and refraining from embracing. None of these seasons are labeled as good or bad. They just are. Each has its place. Each has its purpose.

When I discovered my Queer identity and then came out, I had to learn how to honor the seasons of my life. There was a season for hiding. There was a season for questioning. A season for coming out. And a long season for flourishing, even if the world tells me and other LGBTQIA+ people that we shouldn’t flourish.

We don’t always get to choose our seasons. But we can choose to trust that each one has something to teach us, and that the God who created the rhythms of nature also honors the rhythms of our becoming. What’s ending in your life right now might be making space for something new. And that's not something to fear. That’s just how growth works.

Reflection

1.    What season are you in right now - in your faith journey, your relationships, or your sense of self?

2.    Is there something you need to let go of as one season ends, or something you need to embrace as a new season begins?

3.    How have the different "seasons" of your LGBTQIA+ journey shaped who you are today?

Action

As August ends and September begins, do one thing that honors the transition. Clean out a closet. Start a new journal. Plant bulbs for spring. Create a small ritual that acknowledges what’s ending and welcomes what's coming. Let it be a prayer of trust in the God who invented seasons.