Winter, snow, and my walk with the Lord

With a tad of frustration I awoke this morning realizing it had snowed again here in Bowling Green. I can vividly remember as a child wanting it to snow; a day out of school was seen as a God-send. And believe me, I saw my fair share of snow growing up, after all I spent from the beginning of my 7th grade year to the Christmas break of my 10th grade year living in Anchorage Alaska. As a kid, there was just something about sledding, snowball fights, hot chocolate, and snow angels that made snow so wonderful.

But as I’ve gotten older, I find my “desires” have changed. I long for the “dog days” of Summer. I don’t know if it’s my age or what but I love hot dry days. Oh I can still participate in a good snow ball fight and have been known to sled a hill or two, but my body (I’m fast – really too fast approaching 50) always seems to remind me that while the mind in many ways is still that of a child, the body sure isn’t. Or maybe it’s the grime that always covers my truck after a snow that gets to me. Or possibly the gloominess of Winter days, but for whatever reason I find that I like Winter less each year and find myself dreading the forecast when the weatherman says “we can expect 1-3 inches of snow by day break.”

Sitting here at the office today I found myself looking out my window at the white and wonder of last night’s snow fall and began to see some spiritual lessons in all of these “feelings” I’m having. I realistically realize that my days of hoping to make a spiritual impact for the kingdom of God are quickly passing; unless I live to be 100, I have passed the mid-point of my life. I look back and see so many wasted opportunities, open doors if you will that the Lord placed in front of me that for whatever reason I never walked through. Why is it that we never see these opportunities until they are past? I remember the wonderment of being a young seminary student, spiritually making snow-angels so to speak in the safety ofthe campus as I delighted in the thoughts of where I was, and thoughts of changing the world. Oh, I still think I can impact this world, but now I see that it only happens one heart at a time.

Winter also serves to remind me of the times when I have allowed my faith to grow cold. As a pastor I find it so easy (I actually think this is easy for every Christian) to get caught up in “doing” the work of the ministry that we forget to spend time with the One who called us. I find myself sacrificing that which is "best" on the altar of that which is "good." An example of this is how I will often sacrifice my time with the Lord because of the need to make one more hospital visit or attend one more committee meeting. I can’t think of a single time when it was the Lord’s fault for my faith growing cold. In fact I believe His desire is for me to spend daily time with Him, to be made more each day into the image of Jesus. I wish I could honestly say that I have fully learned this lesson of not sacrificing my daily time with the Lord, but I find it’s really a daily battle to prioritize my time with Him.

Staring out the window at my white F-150 Ford truck (man do I LOVE Ford trucks), I find myself irritated as I look at the grime up the sides of my beautiful precious truck. In all honestly I haven’t washed the truck for a few months because it seems futile. Every time I think about taking it through the car wash, I hear a forecast of snow. But as I find myself so frustrated by the “dirtiness” of my truck, I suddenly ask myself if the grime of sin upon my soul bothers me as much as the grime on my truck, and, if I’m honest the answer is no.

So here’s what I think I will do with the rest of my day. First, I think I’m going to spend some time with the Lord and experience a spiritual “washing.” I’m going to spend a little time staring into the “Son-shine” of glory and hopefully then reflect a little of His light and warmth to others. I’m going to hopefully learn (again) the lesson that it’s not a matter of how many days, months, or years I have left on this earth that matter, but rather will I make them count for the King and His Kingdom. Then I’m going to go home, call Aaron outside, and plaster him with a snow ball (grin).

Thanks Lord for the lessons of Winter, they are difficult but necessary.