Seasons

Back in January of this year I was asked to submit an article for the newspaper's "religion" section. I thought I would share it on my blog.

SEASONS

The other morning I was sitting at my kitchen table doing my usual morning routine (coffee, Bible, etc.) when all of a sudden, something outside caught my eye. I looked out into the heavy snowfall and saw a flock of blackbirds roosted in my neighbors trees. They rested for a while, only to take flight again. I thought: “Just two days ago my friends were thinking about going golfing. Now we’re pulling out our shovels instead of golf clubs.” Welcome to seasons in Wyoming.

Randomly I began thinking about San Diego. I’ve been there a few times and have loved it each time. I wasn’t wishing I were there, or booking a flight to leave. It was more like, “Would I enjoy living there?” Being a Wyoming native I think there would be some adjustment to the mass amount of humanity, traffic and cultural differences. But the thought that really stuck in my head was “seasons”. Does San Diego experience four seasons? One? I don’t know. I just know it’s been really nice each time I’ve been there, even at different times of the year. Would I miss the change of seasons? Would I miss the snow? I think I would miss having all four seasons.

What about “seasons” of life? What season am I in right now? What about you? Am I like that dormant tree in my neighbor’s yard where those blackbirds roosted, just waiting out this season? Waiting for brighter days? I don’t think humans are designed that way. Yes, we ARE designed for periods of rest. Maybe even for a “season” of rest. We are NOT however designed to be dormant. We are designed to grow…to be ALIVE!

Recently I was reminded of a season in my life. In 1982, I was a Senior in high school and on the varsity basketball team for Lovell, WY heading to the state tournament. When we first rolled into town, we had an early morning practice at some random gym. All these years later, I had no clue where that gym was. I didn’t really give it much thought. That was until last week. Some friends and I were in Laramie on a business outing. One of the places we landed that day was the Civic Center. It was cool. I love historic buildings. We walked into the gymnasium and BOOM it hit me “This is it. This is that very same gym where we practiced at in 1982.”

I couldn’t help but relive some of the memories. Good memories, and bad ones. I loved basketball, and still do. It was a childhood dream of mine to play high school ball. In that “season” of life I was living my dream. I was on varsity, and we are at the State Tournament. Life is good, right? But something was missing. Why did I feel empty? Why, if I was living a childhood dream, did I feel like there was more? Why did my life feel like that dark, cold and dingy gym?

So, there I was all these years later. Same funky wood floor, bleachers, hoops and even the same tattered padding behind the hoops. It was the same old gym but something was VERY different. ME! My life is no longer empty.
So I left that gym rejoicing. Thanking God for what he showed me while I was there, and praising Him that I no longer feel dormant but ALIVE. Alive in Christ! My life now has purpose no matter what season I find myself in. What about you?