A Time For Everything

To describe the beauty I saw on the way to work today might raise eyebrows; after all it is winter. It’s that time of year when blue skies seem predominantly replaced with gray, trees become exposed in a nakedness of brown and the ground becomes a desert of dormant grass or it is sheathed in a blanket of white snow. You could say perhaps that this neck of the woods is beginning a bit of a seasonal recess that warrants no closer look around because it is all so seemingly the same. Is it the same? Has nature truly taken a recess?
My ride to work is about 45 minutes. Most of my ride is through the country. I suppose that might seem boring to some yet for me-the drive gives me time to think and reflect on things; it often finds me being the listener, so the quietness of this rural drive allows God my undivided attention except for those instances I need to steer myself back onto the road.
In all this wintry dullness that surrounds me I’ve come to realize that the seasonal retreat God has mapped out in nature is not a recess at all. Looking around I see things that I hadn’t before. I question whether what I see has always been there or did I just never notice? As I continue to look I see the plain brown trees are highlighted with fresh snow, I see the little rabbit next to a blue spruce tree, I see a beautiful red fox trotting across a plowed, snow-covered field, I see the pheasant in the brush along the roadside, I see an old red barn barely standing and fallen boards amongst the weeds that surround it and I begin to get the picture-the picture God wanted me to see.
Each season is a time for the usual to step aside and an opportunity for the next to present itself. It’s an opportunity for the seemingly less important, more obscure to shine. So it goes with this life. We allow ourselves to get wrapped up in the things we think are important yet ignore and give little time to too many of the things that are important to God.
The seasons in nature were created to step aside and let all of God’s work have some time to show their colors, goodness and beauty. It is my prayer that those of us in all our vanity, humbly step aside a little more often and allow God to present “front and center” all the beauty and goodness we sometimes keep hidden behind us.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

In Front Of-Not Behind Me

I remember hearing somewhere "God isn't concerned about your happiness-He's concerned about your holiness." I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with Jesus lately. Yesterday my pastor, Wes-an awesome guy by the way was giving a talk on prayer and all of the reasons it's essential to the life of a Christ-follower. Yesterday's leadership gathering reinforced this even further for me. I won't get into details mostly because I think each of us have our own thoughts about holiness and what it means.

I seem to have let myself drift from a place of recognizing God as holy to a place where I consider Him a good buddy. I suppose I've contextualized this relationship too much on the literal notion we are on some walk together-almost to a point that I have subconsciously demoted the Lord simply to the status of "friend." My walk has gotten too casual is what has happened-I think. The things Wes talked about yesterday hit home for me and hit hard.

Yesterday I became reacquainted with God through a simple reminder of something that should be second-nature by now. I was reminded that though I'm walking with the Lord He does not walk behind me, sometimes He walks beside me but most often and most importantly He walks ahead of me. He lights my way so I can follow without falling and He calls to me saying "come-follow me and don't be afraid-where I lead you, I've already been and have prepared a path for you." I don't know about the rest of you but I don't have any casual friends that are willing (or able) to do that for me.

This walk I'm on is not with a casual friend it's with the One that died for me and helps me to be a better person. His love is truly unconditional. Changes of heart begin with recognition of where you are at, where you are going and who will lead you there.

Once in awhile we need to be reminded that God is holy-100% holy and deserving of our total respect. It's one thing to "dress-down" in our appearance before the Lord; it's another to "dress-down" our reverence for Him.

Rescue Me

It bothers a lot of people that Jesus is the only way. If you're trapped in a burning building and a firefighter risks his life to bring you out, you probably won't say, "Hey, wait, you mean there's only one way out of here?" No, you grab that rescuer and you say, "Thank God there is a way out." I came across this at one of the ministry sites I visited.

It's very interesting if you think about it; that there are so many around us each day that suffer through life. Some battle addictions and see no way out. Some battle health issues and see no way out. Some even contemplate suicide because they see no way out. I can talk to several people at church on a given Sunday that struggle with a variety of problems. These are my friends that have found sanctuary in Jesus; they allow themselves to be rescued by the supreme "First Responder" time and time-again.

The holidays have a way of putting extra helpings on our plate-not food I'm talking about but people that need help-that need rescuing. Just as Jesus rescued us from our burning buildings he calls on each of us to respond on His behalf in numbers and snatch those in need of rescue.

Asleep

As I sit here in the quiet morning alone I watch Sam our dog sleep. As I look at him I wonder if he would sleep so much if he knew how little time he had in this life. Would it even matter to him? Then I think maybe that is what God thinks of us; "my children sleep too much-if only they knew what little time I give them in that world". In our case-I use sleep as a metaphor for a lethargic life; simply a state of being yet "being" or "going" nowhere. God created us to "be" and to "go" and He continually calls out to us while we lay sleeping.