Then Wait a Moment

Photo by Kim Lance (Used by permission. Click image for more of Kim’s work)

I like being at the beginning of a new year. Feels good. Having a fresh start and all that. I think I’d like it better if it started in the spring though. It’s kind of hard to get excited when everything is bleak and dreary and gray, you know?

Springtime is when everything really is new. Color comes out of hibernation and washes the earth with beauty. Yep. I think we should move the start of the year to the first day of spring.

I go through this every year because I hate winter. After the holidays I’m ready for spring. This stretch between Christmas and April is brutal. It’s cold, and everything looks like death. Gray sky. Gray grass. Gray trees.

Maybe that’s why I hate it – because it is like death. And I really hate death. It has robbed me of loved ones, even loved pets.

But you know what? Even in the dead of winter there is something new, and it might not be what you think. The Lord’s compassions are new every morning. Look:

I remember my affliction and my wandering,

the bitterness and the gall.

I well remember them,

and my soul is downcast within me.

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,

for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is Your faithfulness.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;

therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,

to the one who seeks him;

(Lamentations 3:19-25, NIV)

My friend, if you’re in a place where the New Year doesn’t feel new…

If you’re thinking that the bitter gall of your life will never turn sweet…

If you are without hope…

Just remember that Jesus suffered the bitter gall so that you can have the Lord’s mercy and compassion and comfort.

Then wait just a moment for the Lord’s compassion on you. He longs to shower you with the warmth of His love. He waits only for your permission to let Him love you.

Tell your Heavenly Father what you need and wait just a moment. Every single morning remind yourself that His compassion on you is new and fresh and exactly what you need for that day. And tomorrow? It will be brand new again.

Why? Because the One who loves you is faithful.

Phyllis Keels

Ode to Winter (Not Really)

While I should have been prepared for yesterday’s power outage, I wasn’t. Even though I had spent the day Monday and that night with my mom because she’s been sick and is still feeling lousy, I really didn’t expect the power to go out somewhere in the wee hours of the morning. So I drove her to my brother and sister-in-law’s around 6:00am so she could use her electric nebulizer for her asthma and so she wouldn’t freeze to death! After helping my son hook up the generator so we could at least have water because we have a well (I say help, but really all I did was hold the flashlight), we went to our house and built a fire. After cooking breakfast over the coals, and two missed conference calls (because I couldn’t log into my work account with no Internet access), the power came back on. I do love “roughing it” using the fireplace because it’s fun, but I don’t know that I’d like to do that all the time. Even though I say I’m not a fan of technology and modern gadgets, I have totally taken hot water and electricity for granted. Still, it all made me remember that winter has always been my least favorite season. Although, I think having no air conditioning in the summer would be much worse than having no power in the winter. Just sayin’… Since we have several weeks of winter to go, and it seems like winter has us tight in its grip, I thought a few quotes about it might make you smile. I know I sure needed this! I have no idea if these quotes are true. I just looked them up on the Internet : ) “To shorten winter, borrow some money due in spring.” (W.J. Vogel) “The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination.” (Terri Guillemets) “Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained about the heat.” (Unknown) “Never take a job where winter winds can blow up your pants.” (Geraldo Rivera) These are from me, so I know they’re true: I’ve always thought of winter as my arch enemy; and the bringer of the cold that flash-freezes my bones. As I’ve gotten older, I haven’t changed my mind. There is nothing good about winter. Unless it snows. And you have a fireplace. And hot chocolate. The middle of winter is the worst for me. How can February be the longest month of the year when it’s the shortest? My favorite part of winter is in knowing that since it officially began on the winter Solstice, the days started getting longer again. Yes, that’s what I like: victory from the start! And looking forward to spring, here’s an excerpt from the great Ogden Nash. Spring Song: Listen, buds, it’s March twenty-first; Don’t you know enough to burst? Come on, birds, unlock your throats! Come on, gardeners, shed your coats! Come on zephyrs, come on flowers, Come on grass, and violet showers! And come on, lambs, in frisking flocks! Salute the vernal equinox! Twang the cheerful lute and zither! Spring is absolutely hither! Yester eve was dark despair, With winter, winter, everywhere; Today, upon the other hand, “Tis spring throughout this happy land. Oh, such is Nature’s chiaroscuro*, According to the Weather Bureau. *artistic use of light and shade God bless, and I pray you are warm and safe! Phyllis Keels

No Matter the Weather

It’s Tuesday Dec. 10, 2013 at 2:45PM EST. The sun just came out a little while ago. You remember the sun? After days, and days, and days, and days of rain and clouds, the sun has come out…

If you could hear what’s going on in my heart right now, it would sound something like the Hallelujah Chorus, and the 1812 Overture, with fireworks in the background. I love the sunshine!

I don’t think I could have taken another day of dismal, wet, soggy, dark, cold weather. I was beginning to go down into despair.

I’m such a baby. Winter hasn’t even started yet.

Sure, I know what they say: winter is necessary; we wouldn’t appreciate the warm sun if it weren’t for cold rain; we wouldn’t love the springtime so much if we didn’t have the wintertime…

I like those statements about as much as “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

What doesn’t kill you hurts. It hurts terribly.

And yet, I know those statements are true. I know that character building and spiritual growth happen only in adversity. It’s just that this knowledge doesn’t comfort us much when we’re going through the adversity. It only comforts and encourages us afterward – when the sun comes out.

When we do go through difficult times, we don’t need more knowledge. We need rest. We need the Lord’s rest.

We need to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and to abide under the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1). We need to be held in the fold of the Shepherd’s robe, close to His heart.

When we go through hard things, as we do each day, we need Jesus. Jesus is the secret place of the Most High. The way we can have rest in the winter of adversity is to place ourselves mentally, spiritually, and emotionally, in His arms by remembering Him.

The reason I say to remember Him is that maybe those of us who know Him as Savior often forget that we have access to the Father only through gift of the Son. I also think that this means all the time. Not just at the moment of salvation.

For me, remembering Jesus is done by thanking the Father for giving me Jesus. It is done by thanking Jesus for giving me Himself. And it is done by resting in His love, His perfect love that casts out all fear, and heals every wound.

It is done by remembering what the Lord Jesus has already done; that He has done all the work. What He wants from me is to rest in His work, not mine.

So remember Him, my friend. Listen for His name. Speak His name to those around you. There is peace in His name. There is hope, and oh, there is love – love that is meant just for you, right where you are.

In honoring Jesus this way, we will also honor the Father, and that makes the sun come out every day, no matter what the weather of adversity brings.

It causes us to not only survive the wintertime of the soul, but to see it as the beauty of springtime in the making – full of abundant life, life through the presence of the One by whom all life came: Jesus!

Phyllis Keels