Season Check

Summer is quickly coming to a close, Autumn will soon be upon us in our part of the world. The colors of summer will begin to fade, leaves will fall and daylight shorten as nature prepares for a winter slumber. Yet in other parts of the world there is continual life and growth, where winter is only a date on the calendar. There is lush vegetation full of life year round, where temperatures only vary by a few degrees through the seasons. Then other places go into a hard winter nap when even the sun does not shine.

Do we recognize in nature a similarity to our spiritual life?  Are we continually thriving in our walk and relationship? Growing and producing life, changing the scenery in the world around us? Or, is there a slipping into Fall or entry into winter? Nature is influenced by its geographic location, how close it is the equator, the closest place to the sun. Likewise, our spiritual life is also influenced by how close we are to the Son or the distance we have moved from him? Unlike nature we can choose our location, even if we cannot change our physical location, we can change where our heart abides and mind dwells.

It’s important to step back occasionally to do a season check, an honest look at where we are spiritually. It is easy to slip into complacency, to become comfortable when life is going well. In the spiritual realm if we are not moving forward, growing, we begin to decline – the glory begins to fade. If we find ourselves fading, losing fervor for the things of God, entering into dormancy, we need to stop, reposition our thoughts and desires back upon the Lord, drawing back into closeness with him before we slip further into a winter of the soul – lifelessness. We can cry out to him to visit us once more, to refresh us, to restore us; we can take steps to return to our first Love. God tells us in Jeremiah 29:12-13 TLB “In those days when you pray, I will listen. You will find me when you seek me, if you look for me in earnest.”  Let us not slip, fall asleep, or grow weary in well doing. Seek to keep Jesus, the Son, at the center of our universe, the One who gives us life abundantly, who nourishes and calls us his own.