One of the things that Camille and I are looking forward to this year is seeing the hopefully stark contrast of winter in Mississippi vs. winter in Kansas. We have tried to get a sense of what it will be like, you know, how cold will it get? How much, if any snow will we see? How long will cold spells last? When does it start to feel like spring? Part of our search has led us to looking at climate information which does provide a bit of help but only the accumulated data from years in the past. This is only partially helpful because as you know, the weather doesn’t work like that. There are normal years and abnormal years. There are stretches of cooler or warmer than normal weather. There are times when it is wetter or drier than average. The average or normal data is helpful but we must realize that the weather is different each year.
There is a saying in Kansas that I suspect is adapted to other places as well: “if you don’t like the weather in Kansas, just wait a minute, it could change in a moment!” That’s the way I am used to seeing the weather transition from season to season. There are spurts and then retreats of cold or hot, wet or dry. It doesn’t just happen in a smooth, linear fashion. When we were visiting Colorado recently, the weather people were predicting snow the day after a day where the projected high temperature was to be 95! They were describing a 65-70 degree temperature shift! When talking with my daughter about it, both of us were fully expecting it to happen. Why? Because we had each seen it happen before! Sure enough, the day after we left, she was posting pictures on Facebook of what looked like a couple of inches of snow!
Just so you know, I haven’t run out of things to write about in this blog and have only the weather to talk about! I think, rather, there is an important message that we would be wise to benefit from in all of this. Our Spiritual lives are very much like the weather. We experience spurts and stops and often seems there is no reason or rhyme to it. Upon close examination, there really is!
God is working to draw us nearer to Him. Oftentimes we need a bit of an extra push to move us away from a comfortable place where trusting God isn’t necessarily required, to a more unfamiliar place where our trusting of God will need to grow and be enhanced. The pushes often appear to be rather “shocking” but are not unprecedented. If we look back at our life with God in the past we will notice that what we are going through, a shock of some sort, is not new but a familiar way of God’s guiding hand.
Think with me about the year 2020. I know, we would all probably like to forget it!
- Instead though, how has this year deepened your walk with Christ?
- How has what has played out before us this year led you to want to trust Christ more and human systems less?
- How have you dealt with the fear of hearing someone close to you testing positive or is suffering due to the virus?
- How has being forced to worship and study in the Church only via technology made you rethink your participation level in these lifeblood activities of the Church?
Yes, 2020 has been a weird year and likely the effects of it will be felt for a long time. God is in control of what is going on and there are great lessons to be learned. Take a step back and think. Use the lack of freedom to move closer to Him and rest assured that while the “weather may have dramatically changed”, God has a plan, what hasn’t changed is the face that He loves you and desires all the people of the world to be reconciled to Him and each other!
Keith says
Very true and comforting knowing He is in control.
Kent Myers says
Good thoughts Tony. Yes, 2020 has been a weird one but people are seeking spirituality now more than years in the past. The question is whether they will choose Jesus or something else.