Season of Change

Ah, spring has arrived in the Midwest. The strangle hold winter has had has finally been weakened and we can now expect to experience beautiful warm days from now until next autumn. I certainly hope this to be true; however, I have lived here long enough to realize that the end of April is still a tad early to make this declaration. We might still have those unexpected cold blustery days rise once again and remind us of the salient fact that we cannot control nature. However, those days are rare, and perhaps they will not come at all. I can say with no fear of being proved wrong, there will be far more nice days than those that are not. I also am confident that the bone chilling, arctic blasts of January have retreated and the summer season I love so well has begun to establish a foothold.

I am amazed at how easily one can draw comparisons between the seasons of nature and life. Those experiences of life that thrust us into times of grief and agony; the winters of our existence, seem so intense that they chill our spirit to its very core. The times we spend traversing our lifeway through the drifts of grief are arduous journeys that drain away our energy and leave in its place the emptiness of exhaustion. So many times we feel, just as I do in mid February, ‘this winter will never end’. Nevertheless, end, it does.

Grief, like winter has fuzzy borders. The line that divides these times in our lives is blurred and the times of respite from our sorrow are at first like those ‘January thaw’ days of winter. They seem to tease us with the remembrance of how it was, those days of warmth, the good days, only to be replaced by the days, which once again thrust us back into the realization that this season has not ended. However, as time progresses, the ‘sunny’ days come more frequently and combine into weeks of ‘good’ days. Soon those weeks become a season, and eventually the grief and pain are but an unpleasant memory tucked away in the fabric of our memory. The memory of winter is always a part of us, but the biting cold that once drove us to shelter no longer has a hold on us and we remember it in an atmosphere of warmth and safety.

Today, as you read this, you may be in the throes of a winter season. If so have hope, spring is coming. Look for those that God has placed on your lifeway to help warm you and provide companionship along the way. Perhaps it is spring in your world, the cruel north winds no longer blow, but the inconvenient times of grief still remind you of its presence. Take heart, the good days are outnumbering the bad, and soon you will bask in the glory of the Son, which has always been there tempering the cold.

If you are enjoying summer, remember those who are not. Allow yourself to be used to help them once again feel the warmth.

Be observant of those on your lifeway and reach out, and do not forget; the seasons change.

Enjoy the Java

Jim