New Seasons
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
Spring is in the air, and we all said, "Its about time!"
We were coming home to Nashville recently from a trip to Northwest Ohio. It was the last week of March; Palm Sunday to be exact. And driving through Ft. Wayne, Indiana down I-69 we hit a snow storm head-on. For the next two hours we passed cars on the side of the road and some in the ditch, police periodically assisting those who braved the weather and were humbled by it's force. It seems that winter is reluctant to set us free from its icy grip.
But I'm here to declare its on its way out! And I have good reason to believe in my prediction; a lifetime of seeing the cold finally succumb to the warmth of Spring and eventually Summer, at which point some of us will long for the cooler temperatures once again. Go figure.
Life is kind of like that. Life has seasons, some short, some long, sometimes hot, sometimes cold. But they are just seasons. They don't last forever.
My life is certainly like that. We are in the process of moving. A new owner will soon take possession of the house I have called home for many years. Almost all my kids came home from the hospital to this place. We have hundreds of videos and pictures of kids in various stages of their lives all against the backdrop of this house and yard. Learning to ride bikes and climb trees and play badmitton all have this place as their frame of reference.
Its hard to leave a place where so much of your life and your memories are linked to, but it's time. Its a good thing. Sometimes we have to leave the familiar to go where we need to go and do what we need to do.
That was certainly true of Abram (Abraham). God told him to leave his country and his kindred and take his family to an unknown destination. Imagine! In that day and time travel was very difficult. We travel in a 45 ft. motor coach with individual air and heat for each section, a refrigerator and comfy bunks. Not so for Abraham and his crew. Camels and oxen and dust and sleeping out in the open! Risky business at best.
But Abraham obeyed, and because he did we have the rest of the story.
How about you? Where is God calling you? What is he presenting to you that would require leaving your comfort zone and setting out with an uncertain destination? Teaching a Sunday School class? Talking to a neighbor about Jesus? Taking a missionary trip to a foreign country to serve an orphanage for a couple of weeks?
God rarely calls us to something familiar. He is so adventurous!
So, what are you waiting for? I once read that the greatest tragedy is not to aim too high and miss the goal but to aim to low and hit it.
Its a new season. Embrace the change, relying on the God Who never fails. Where He guides, He provides. Cliche but true. God bless you in your journey.
Billy Blackwood / Billy@BillyBlackwood.com
Questions or comments are welcome.
