Seasons

These past few days have been beautiful and unseasonably warm with highs in the 60's. It's been great!

While I was waiting for the bus this morning at 6:30 am, the guy in front of me said, "I love this nice weather, it's about time, this winter has been terrible. We've been nailed this year!"

(for those of you who don't know, I take the Yankee Trails shuttle into Albany because there's no parking downtown. Or uptown. I get confused as to which one it is.)

Anyway, I quickly snapped back, "Well, we do live in the Northeast, I guess that's to be expected."

I don't think anyone appreciated my response, however, taken into account the fact that it's 6:30 am, pre-coffee, pre-breakfast; it's a miracle that I'm even able to formulate a sentence at that point.

Now, if you're like me, you HATE the winter. In fact, there are only two people that I know of that LOVE the winter and the cold: Angela and Jodi. (I asked for permission to use their names)

I hate being cold, it makes me miserable. It actually makes me mad. Yes, I get angry when it's freezing outside. LOL There are many nights I'll sit home because I just don't want to go out, I'd rather stay in and be warm. There are days that I don't want to go work because I hate getting up out of my warm blankets. And sometimes, it gets to the point where I feel like winter is never going to end, and I don't know if I can handle it for one more day.

The bus arrived at 6:40 on schedule, and as usual I went all the way to very back seat and sat down. I began to think about my snotty response (God forgive me) to the comment about the brutal winter that we've endured. I was starting to feel bad for saying that, because truth is, this winter has sucked. I was trying to figure out what made me respond so nastily. Then I realized, we've only had two nice days outside. It only took two days of being nice outside for me to forget almost four long months of torturous coldness. I completely forgot about the bad weather, I forgot how much I hated the cold. I guess in Tara's happy world, that was my way of saying, "What are you talking about?! It's nice out now, there's no such thing as winter!"

Then I got a revelation.

That's just like life. We all go through seasons. Some seasons are long, cold, torturous, painful, and seemingly never ending. Sometimes we wonder if God's forgotten about us, if He's hearing our cries and our longing for help. Sometimes we don't know if we can handle anymore and wonder if we can go on for one more day.

And then suddenly.......

SUDDENLY!!!

There's a breakthrough. Just like the flowers in the picture that I took outside my house this afternoon that broke through the ground, there is a break through in our lives and situations.

Maybe you've been waiting on God and believing for something for so long, and it doesn't seem fair because everyone else around you has received what you're waiting for.

Wait one more day....

Maybe your heart has been broken and the pain is so bad that you don't think that you can make it one more day.

Hold on one more day.

Maybe you're at a point in your life where nothing makes sense, and you feel like you're aimlessly roaming around waiting for God to answer, direct, and guide your way.

Seek Him one more day.

Maybe you lost your job and your living paycheck to paycheck wondering how you're going to provide for yourself and your family.

Trust His provision one more day.

Maybe you have a lost loved one and as the days are counting down, you're worried they'll never come to receive eternal salvation.

Pray one more day.

The thing is, God knows exactly what you're going through and where you're at. He has not forgotten about you. As a matter of fact, in Jeremiah 29:11 God tells us, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

Just like I had quickly forgotten about four long months of winter after ONLY two warm spring-like days, when God comes through, when you receive that thing you've been waiting for, when He provides financially, when He heals your heart........you will no longer remember or even think about the horrible 'winter' that you had just endured. What He has in store for you is SO good, that it will blow your mind. The pain will quickly dissipate and you'll be so excited for what He's done, that in a few short days, years of waiting will no longer be remembered.

Spring is right around the corner!

Hold on one more day, your new season is too!!

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. Psalm 126: 5

Oh, and for the record, it's going back down to seasonable temperatures in the 40's on Thursday.