The stands are filled. The band is playing the school song and the crowd joins in with the chant. A big banner is drawn across the field intended for the team to run through. The end zone displays the names of the teams in the appropriate colors and the quarter is all shined up to see who will receive the opening kickoff. Then the voice of the announcer can be heard over the PA, "Okay Fans! Let's hear it for our home team!" And with that the varsity team comes running through the banner proudly displaying the school's basketball uniform?!?. Wait a minute. I thought it was football season. Let me check my calendar. Yup, it's football season. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. Some one forgot to tell these guys what season it was.
And yet, we do the same thing all the time. We tend to want to relive our past or return to what we did best. We try to recapture our youth. To return to a time when we felt safe. Comfortable. Accepted. A time when we felt like we were succeeding. I'm not talking about going to the gym to shoot hoops or getting in a pickup game at the park. I'm not talking about Wednesday night softball leagues either. Physical exercise is great. What I'm talking about are spiritual seasons.
God tells us that there is a time and a season for everything. We wouldn't dress in summer clothes when there is snow on the ground. Neither would we get into a football game wearing sneakers and no pads (discounting of course those crazy South Africans and there version of the game). So why is it that when the Father calls us from one season to another we try so desperately to stay where we are? There will be winters in our lives when we feel as though we are achieving nothing. But God is. He never sleeps. He is always moving forward. When we find ourselves feeling as though we can do nothing but crawl under the covers, or nestle in front of the fire to keep from the bitter cold, don't think that going outside in shorts and a tee-shirt will change anything. You are bound for disappointment. The season is over. (For now?)
If the Father has blessed you in the past, thank Him for it. If He had given you a talent or ability that you enjoyed, terrific. Consider a rose bush. When it first blooms it is beautiful. But as the season comes to an end a good gardener gets out the shears. He then prunes, cuts back, all the branches. Ouch! But each year, when the spring returns, there are more flowers. And each year the gardener prunes. And again, more flowers. Had the gardener not pruned then the bush would go barren.
Our Father is a well experienced gardener. The flowers that bloomed for us in the past may have been cut off. But, with our roots in Him, we remained. And new flowers came, more flowers. And again, snip. Do you see the pattern? If we refuse to allow Him to prune the flowers in His time, we hurt ourselves. We must be willing to change with the seasons. To accept some losses. But to also look forward to the blossoms that He is preparing for us.
Have you checked your calendar lately?
SDG
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