We are also officially heading into the ‘winter season’ (perhaps not so much depending on your geography!) —But, none the less, there are subtle changes even if not dramatic. With the Thanksgiving holiday over, and changing weather patterns, regardless of where you live, you can tell 'change' is in the air. (Sometimes it has more to do with travelers from one area of the country to another!)
We know in a few months changes will happen again as spring brings newness to the earth where winter has put it to sleep; then summer arrives, followed by fall, then winter and the cycle repeats itself.
As adults we often relate to ‘seasons’ through our ‘life markers’. We were children first in elementary school, then middle and finally we reach high school graduation! We’ve learned to drive and have a job. Many of us go to college, have sweethearts and marry. Eventually we have children and then they follow the same cycle we did before them.
As we get older, we discover we are in the ‘season’ of grand-parenting! We reached retirement and perhaps a slower pace of living and even find time for travel until our health changes our plans.
All of these ‘changes’ are seasons we seldom realize we’ve moved into since many are subtle and, expected changes; just like the weather seasons. Anything different seems out of place.
How do all these seasons fit into our spiritual life? Perhaps the better question would be how have we fit our spiritual life into all of the different seasons? We get so caught up in the movement of life (often at a frantic pace) we tend to put our relationship with Christ on the shelf. There just isn’t time to fit everything in!
As young people we strive to ‘fit in’ with our peers. We don’t always talk about our faith because the last thing we want is to have a friend think we’re ‘weird’ because we believe in someone called Jesus!
As teenagers our world is all about ‘us’ as we attempt to discover who we are and what we want out of life. Once we are married and have a family of our own, we are busy with jobs, being a ‘taxi’ for all the events our kids are involved in; we’re caught up in trying to be the best parent on the block, while trying to keep up the status we are expected to carry in our neighborhoods or at work and sometimes even in our church!
All these elements end up being a distraction and we back off from what once might have been important—way back when we were young— our spiritual life.
We end up feeling empty and lost, and searching; even sometimes for something we can’t define. In desperation we remember that person called Jesus. We cry out and rekindle that relationship we’d almost forgotten about. Ever so slowly we find ourselves in the final season of life; nearing death.
The last thing we want is to be nearing our last breath and wondering when and how we veered off the right path! How’d that happen? Where did time go? What choices did I totally mess up, or miss? Was I the servant God called me to be, or just a shadow of what could have been?
In what season do you find yourself? Is this Christmas season filled with the hope, joy and love of Christ, or are you a little off course? There’s no time like the present to again remember that unique person we know as Jesus. He really is 'the reason for this season'!
No comments:
Post a Comment