I've been reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe with the 5th graders I'm student-teaching, and we're doing a Lit Circle. For those of you who don't know what a Lit Circle is: it's basically a more structured way to discuss a book by assigning each student a different role such as "Vocabulary Detective" "Discussion Leader" or "Story Sketcher". For the "Creative Connector" role, the student's task is to come up with connections between what they are reading in the story and in their own lives. Almost every chapter, a student will bring up how they understand how it feels to live in Narnia because "It's always winter and never Christmas" there and it feels like it's always winter here, too. This got me thinking beyond Narnia and crazy Iowa weather, and I've decided to share my thoughts. :)
If I told you that I seriously believed that spring was never going to come this year, you would think I'm crazy, yes? You would most likely remind me that in the past 21 years of my life, spring has always come, so why would this year be any different? You might remind me that God is in control of the seasons, and He knows what He's doing. Maybe you'd tell me to look on the bright side of things and be thankful for the moisture that this snow is providing for our future crops. Perhaps you'd say that even though spring isn't coming when I would prefer it to, I just can't lose hope that it will come.
So my question is: Why is it so easy to trust God to bring physical spring in the midst of a lingering winter and yet so terribly hard to trust God that He will bring us a spiritual spring when all we can see is the cold, harsh times? I have a few ideas...
#1- We know that we have absolutely no control over the weather. We know that we can't cause it to be warmer or for the rain to fall or for the sun to shine brighter. It is super easy for us to recognize our inadequacy in this area. Spiritually, I don't think it's the same case. It's a little more difficult for us to recognize that we don't have any control over our spiritual winters either. We like to think we're in control and it's SUPER hard to swallow our pride and accept that sometimes.
#2- Every single other person in the world will partner alongside us and give us the confidence to believe that spring will come. They have all been there before in the exact same situation, so even if we had never seen springtime before, it would be easy for us to believe them. Spiritually, we may have people tell us about their own winter into spring transitions. How they didn't think they would ever get through it and they did. Or how we need to just trust in God, etc. But spiritually, no two cases are exactly alike. Sure, it might have worked out for them, but how can we be sure it will be for us?
#3- We can easily recall past springtimes and we have records through pictures, conversations, or calendars that prove to us that spring always comes after winter--sooner or later. Unfortunately, for many of us spiritually, we don't have as great of a memory. And when our memory fails us, we don't have any kind of record to remind us of past spiritual springtimes. We might try to remind ourselves of a time when everything was going well and we felt like we were growing like crazy in our walk with the Lord, but before we know it, our thoughts get jumbled and we forget what really happened. Eventually, we find ourselves doubting if we've ever really had a springtime before or if it was all a lie. The devil can do some nasty tricks with our mind....
[And this is the part where I have to put in my endorsement for the spiritual discipline of journaling! ;) Check out this other blog I wrote to see how I feel about this matter HERE.]
But back to what I said at the beginning about you most likely claiming me crazy if I told you I don't think spring will ever actually come this year. Well, then, why is it okay for me to believe that spiritually? Why do I credit the Lord to be faithful when it comes to physical seasons, but doubt His faithfulness when it comes to spiritual ones? The Lord never changes. Why does my trust in Him change??
This also makes me think of a verse in the beautifully symbolic book, Song of Songs. Check it out HERE.
Winds that come from the north are cold & harsh. They're not so enjoyable.
Winds that come from the south are warm & refreshing. They're delightful.
Notice, though, that the Bride calls for both winds to come and blow over the garden of her heart and spread the fragrance of her love all around for her Beloved to enjoy & delight in. She knows that both the winds of refreshing springtime AND the winds of testing winter truly show her devoted love for her Bridegroom.
Here's a great song to sum up those thoughts, too. Fling Wide by Misty Edwards Check it out! :)
May we all be able to say, "Thankyou, Jesus, for giving us both winter & springtime--times of testing & times of refreshing (no matter how long they may last). Come south AND north winds... Have your way..."
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