Seems like spring was a long time in coming this year. The gray, cold days of winter just lingered on and on… Even once the days started turning warmer, a stretch of chilling weather worked into the midst of the sunny days as a reminder not to take the warmth for granted.Our lives as believers tend to mimic the seasonal changes. Sometimes pain and trouble seem to be endless, leaving us shivering, discouraged, and desperate. Once relief comes, it is often sporadic as we deal with the causes of the troubles – from our own actions or those of others.
Those darker, colder times are there to remind us to take care of the root causes of our pain and not hide away from them because we feel better for a time. If we don’t take care of the problem completely, especially if it is something we ourselves have caused, it will shoot back up to trouble us again.
God’s perfect plan for us is to live in His light, His Holiness…allowing it to penetrate even our deepest, hidden pain. Total exposure all at once to His Holiness would be unbearable, like stepping from extreme darkness into bright, hot sunshine – and being temporarily blinded. That’s why we end up dealing with our pain and, yes, our sins, in small doses.
Our loving Father knows we need to feel His warmth and love as we deal with our troubles. He also knows that to grow into the people He created us to be, we must take small steps into living holy lives. It would be wonderful if asking Jesus to be our Savior was all it took to live happy, productive Christian lives. But part of the redemption process includes not only walking into the light…but purposely stepping out of the darkness in which we have been living.
Thankfully, He doesn’t expect us to go it alone! Our first step is to allow Him to gently point His light into the hidden places. Then we either: 1) confront the pain, forgive the perpetrator of it, and allow God to heal us… Or, 2) we confront the sin His Holiness exposes, confess our guilt from a heart full of sorrow at the pain we have caused God, ask His forgiveness, and allow Him to help us turn away from the desire run back into the dark.
The unfortunate part of living in a fallen world is that we will continue to live in this cycle of seasons… People will let us down and cause us pain. We will let God down and cause Him pain. But just as spring follows winter, joy follows sorrow if we let God into our lives daily. We can deal more quickly with our pain and troubles if we are daily in fellowship with Him. No longer will it be like winter is creeping back into our lives…
We will still have stormy spring days…possibly dark and miserable for a time… But warm, glorious summer is just around the corner. Living in God’s light means that although we are not care-free, our storms can be more like sun showers – rain while the sun is shining. The most amazing thing about sun showers is the rainbow clearly visible in the midst of the storm… God’s promise is to be with us and not let us be pulled back into the darkness.
“Now may the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13 [NKJV]
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