Hello Spring,
As I sit here in my home writing these words, it is the first day of spring in 2024. Literally. I’m ready for a new season, aren’t you? Especially spring.
Colorful little pansy blooms are fluttering in the breeze alongside the sidewalk out front. I can see them as I walk out the door. Two sparrows (I guess that’s what they are) are playing fly ‘n’ seek. They are either madly in love or really upset at each other. They’ve built a tiny nest in the streetlight near the mailbox. The grass is decidedly greener than it was a couple of months ago. God’s private urban renewal program is happening before my very eyes in my yard. I was wrong again. Just when I was convinced everything was doomed to perpetual drab, it’s become rainbow city out there. Amazing!
Reminds me of a slice of my life…how about you? The blizzard blast of winter does a numbing number on our minds, have you noticed? Feelings of helplessness settle in. The fragrance of blossoms seems buried forever, smothered beneath the cold, snuffed out in the root system never again to emerge. Makes us wonder if we’ll ever run free again, if the sod will ever soften, if we’ll ever again feel warmly embraced by the rays of the sun as it smiles on us through cloudless days. Bottom line: Will change ever occur?
Suddenly, God pushes back the gate and in marches March to the cadence of the Conductor’s command. Happens every year. Enter: renewal.
O Spring, how we’ve missed you!
How much we need our gracious nudging! Stir us from our slumber. Bring back the color. Add a little shower now and then to clean things up. Blow away those threatening clouds with your sweet, gentle breeze so we can see again mountains of challenge that make us want to climb higher. They’ve been there all winter, but we’ve been inside a long, long time. It’s easy to lose sight of the beautiful peaks and the lovely meadows when we reduce life to “Operation Survival.”
Is it springtime right now in your season of life? Perhaps you’re awakening from spiritual hibernation, crawling slowly out of a dark cave of disillusionment and discouragement. Don’t be afraid to try again. That’s the sun out there! It invites you to try out its splendor…to believe anew. To realize that the same Lord who renews the trees with buds and blossoms, who renews the grass with green in place of brown, is ready to renew your life with hope and courage (April 15, notwithstanding!).
The promise of change is all around. If you are ready to believe that, read on, the following “spring thoughts” have been designed with you in mind.
In Him,
David
Summer
I can almost hear her singing it, can’t you? Straight out of Porgy and Bess… the black lady rolls those big eyes and belts out:
“Summertime and the livin’ is easy, Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high.”
Makes us wanna get right down and run around the house barefoot, singin’ that ole tune. We’re talkin’ cut-offs and tank tops, kite flyin’, fun truckin’, shaggin’ flies, and no school. I mean, there ain’t nothing’ like those lazy, hazy days of summer, right? Makes no difference where we live, sumer is easy livin’! From the windswept hills of Arkansas to the craggy shoreline of Oregon… from the surfers off Santa Barbara to the racers in Indianapolis… from the surfers off peninsula to nostalgic Cape Cod…from muggy Houston to Scoggy Seattle, when it’s summertime, it’s vacation time. A long-awaited and much needed season of relaxation and rest.
Speaking of rest, been doing much of it lately? Or is that resistance I’m feeling from you? If so, you’re probably singing another song (it’s usually in a minor key) with a hard-driving beat, a heavy rhythm, and lots of volume… sufficient to drown out all those comments from your family and a few close friends (and maybe your doctor?) urging you to add a little leisure to your life. Sure is easy to keep putting that off, isn’t it? Afer all, there’s a job to be done! And your to-do list isn’t nearly accomplished. And you haven’t reached your quota this month. And there are lots of folks depending on you. And if you plan to get ahead in this world, it’s going to require a two-ended candle and a ton of energy. And…and…yes, I know, I know.
You want to know how I know? I hear those messages inside my head. Being a high-achiever, work-ethic type myself, I’ve been beating the drum for almost half a century. “Be responsible!” “Press on!” “Make things happen!” “Word hard!” “Do it now!” If anybody understands, I do.
But I can no longer ignore the necessity of the summer season in my life…nor can you, friend. If God considered this planet needed several months of summer, it stands to reason that His people are equally in need of refreshment and rest. He even says so:
“There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest…” (Hebrews 4:9-11).
Interesting (and convicting) command, isn’t it? We are to be diligent to enter into rest. That doesn’t mean a lazy, irresponsible life-style full of indolence and free of industry. No, this is first and foremost a mental rest, a quiet confidence in the living Lord. A refusal to churn, to fret, to strive. The summer season symbolizes all this and more, much more.
Perhaps the following “summer thoughts” will help you live a little easier and, who knows, you may even become easier to live with!
In Him,
