Seasons

I love soaking in the sunshine.

I love wearing flip flops in the winter.

I love to run on the treadmill every day.

I love to write novels, short stories and inspirational anecdotes.

I love to watch obscure classic films.

But I haven’t been doing the things I love lately.

Why?

Well, a move, a new job, new responsibilities, a new routine – it all fills the hours and leaves me mentally and physically exhausted.

I’ve tried fitting my loves into the new schedule, but I just haven’t figured it out yet.

So I’ve had to set a few things on the back burner.

At first, I felt mad. Not outwardly – I usually don’t throw angry temper tantrums out loud. No, my mad was under the skin, an irritating simmer of disappointment.

After mad, I got sad. I mourned for the pristine, perfect, not to mention spoiled, schedule I’ve enjoyed in the recent past that included all of my loves. I even wondered if these loves were gone from my life permanently. I actually thought, maybe this is how life goes from now on.

I put that consideration on the back burner too. I didn’t want to contemplate that possibility at all.

But the thought reemerged as I gazed out at the frozen wonderland I now live in.

For being such a sun-worshipper, I’ve adjusted to my new climate surprisingly well. I even kind of… like… it. *gasp*

This past weekend showed me that as we jogged a ways up a closed road that leads from Red Lodge, MT to Yellowstone National Park. It was gorgeous – and if you didn’t see on my FB page – we saw two moose!! That wouldn’t have happened in any other environment or climate.

Though it was a good time, I wouldn’t want to live in snow-covered tundra all the time. It occurred to me that I’m glad winter is just a season.

That’s when it clicked.

I’m in a season of life too. And like the snow, I can’t exactly predict when it will change.

I can appreciate it while it lasts.

I can trust God knows the desires of my heart and sees what I have warming on the back burner. (Psalm 37:4)

I can accept that life’s seasons are constantly changing and flowing and fluxing.

I can have hope that winter leads to spring, and spring births summer, and summer fades to autumn.

It’s an awesome, essential cycle that produces growth.

As King Solomon iterates in Ecclesiastes (Chp.13), some seasons are tougher than others.

There’s a time to plant and to uproot. There’s a time to mourn and a time to dance. There’s a time to be born and a time to die.

But seasons, at their very nature, lead to the next. We can be encouraged that each season, especially the tough ones, will bloom into another one.

The only seed we can sow that will lead to a dead end (literally) is sin. The grave can swallow you into a permanent season of death and no more growth will ever happen again.

Unless…

You trust Christ. Then you can say with the redeemed, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55)

Tough times? It’s a season. This, too, shall pass.

Love you, Dry Ground friends! Be blessed!

(photos by photobucket.com)