SPRINGTIME!!!

Terry Harmon, my close friend and brother in Christ, once again provides us with one of his weekly bulletin articles.  We’re reminded that the seasons come and go, and this is the time of year we can relish the freshness of springtime.  Thanks Terry for this ‘seasonal’ reminder.

singing bird

Have you noticed how the birds are singing and the trees are beginning to bud?  With the recent, cooler weather and soaking rains the grass will be turning green in no time.  H.A. Jacob says that life comes and goes just like the seasons.  There are seasons of summer, when the sun reigns and the heat warms the earth’s crust.  As the days begin to shorter, the weather begins to cool and autumn seems to burst into color.  With the beauty of the red, gold and brown hues, we soon feel the promise of cooler nights.  In short order, winter comes with the crisp, cold air and an occasionally frosting of snow and ice.  But as the days begin to length, and the air begins to warm we realize the cycle of the seasons turns again to springtime.

Springtime is a beautiful picture of hope.  Spring seems to assure us that no matter how cold and desolate; how bitter or solemn the winter, it will come to an end bursting forth with new life.  Things will become green and tender again.  Fruitfulness will return and we will grow.  Springtime seems to say that we can be stronger than before.  We can over come the dead of winter and live again.

Jacob asks what we should learn from the seasons.  What can we take from the cycle of creation that will make us better, stronger and ultimately more Godly?  Consider the following three points of growth:

1)      The difficult seasons will come to an end.  Nothing last forever and by enduring it, we can begin a new.

2)      God is working in each season of our lives.  He is preparing us to bring forth fruit in due season.  Even though the pruning is painful, the results are worth it.

3)      Other people are in a ‘season’ just like you.  Some are in the season of winter and distress, needing the warmth of encouragement.  Whether by a touch, a kind word or a gift of charity, encouragement is a tangible commodity.  As Christians we need to be able to offer encouragement as we recognize the respective seasons of friends and family.red river 2 & 3 010

It is always ‘in season’ to speak words of encouragement.  God will give us the tongue of a disciple which will speak to the weary words of strength and resolve.  As we wake each day, and tune our ears to heaven, He will help us speak words of blessed assurance.  “Therefore, encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” (I Thess. 5:11).  “A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, and a word spoken in due season, how good it is!” (Proverbs 15:23).  And Paul reminds us in Colossians 4:6, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned as it were with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.”

May your spring this year bring you a new and refreshing time.  Even more so, may it be a budding time for each of us on a spiritual level.  Let us keep our minds open as to where others are ‘seasonally’ in order to offer a word of encouragement!

Everything Changes, Except…

Change isn’t easy!  As a matter of fact, Sydney Harris, an American journalist for the Chicago Daily News once said, “Our dilemma is that we hate change and love it at the same time; what we really want is for things to remain the same but get better.”

Change can be hard to face at times and yet if we want to grow, we have to change.  For things to sincerely ‘get better’, they can’t stay the same.  This week my daughter (a senior in HS) went with me to the office.  As we talked about the changes in our family, big brother is now in college, I reminder her that we ALL change.  She wasn’t going to always be my little blonde, curly haired 5 year old.  She was growing into adulthood and, if the Lord wills, would one day have a family of her own.  If we remain the same, that would be nice, but how could things hope to improve.  As a matter of fact, in our spiritual lives we sing the song, “Change My Heart of God”.  If we want our lives to ‘get better’, we have to go through a metamorphosis (a change).  But why do we ‘hate change?’  Perhaps it’s because of the uncertainty that lies ahead.

How often I would like for things to ‘just stay the same’.  Actually some folks take great strides to make sure things never change.  We are comfortable with the tried and true.  Not needing to ‘wonder what will happen next’ is a good thing…isn’t it?  Let me direct you to another hymn that actually talks about the changes in our lives.  The transitions that we face in life.

Over 100 years ago Jennie Wilson penned a song that tells me what to do when uncertainty comes into my life.  I need to remember the words…

Time is filled with swift transition – naught of earth unmoved can stand (Nothing on earth can change this fact)
Build your hopes on things eternal, hold to God’s unchanging hand. (The earth changes…God, eternal, does not)

Trust in Him who will not leave you, whatsoever years may bring, (God is constant, even with the changes in life)
If by earthly friends forsaken, still more closely to Him cling. (People let us down, God won’t)

When your journey is completed, if to God you have been true (When life is over, and if you have been faithful)
Fair and bright the home in glory your enraptured soul (delight without measure) will view (Heaven’s really good!)

Hold to His hand…to God’s unchanging hand!
Hold to His hand…to God’s unchanging hand!
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

We will face changes in life and some of them will make us ‘wish for the good ole days’.  But change will come and often it will come swiftly.  In a world that is created to ‘change’, hold fast to Him who created this world…He does NOT change.  James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom THERE IS NO VARIATION or shifting shadow.”  To put it simply…God doesn’t change.

Children hold the hands of their parents because there is comfort in knowing someone is beside them.  We hold hands as couples to show our spouse (and others who might be watching) that we find comfort and security in our loved ones presence.  In a world that is ‘swiftly transitioning’, perhaps we should be looking to reach out and take hold of our Father’s hand.  Changes will come into your life, but with God we will always find consistency.  Perhaps Mr. Harris was right, we do have a dilemma when it comes to change, but remember what he said, want we really want is for things ‘to get better.’