Winter Come Lately

Winter Come Lately

Winter has yet to arrive on the Gulf Coast this year. And we’re not alone. Apparently winter is late in coming all across the country. Folks who have to dig their cars out from snow day after day are probably rejoicing. Even my local friends who savor summer’s heat are thrilled. I, on the other hand, am not. I like cold weather. It brings back good memories of snowball fights with my sister, making snow ice cream, and sledding on heavy-duty garbage bags down hills in Birmingham. (No one in Birmingham bothered to buy a real sled since it only snowed two or three days a year there.) Since it snowed so infrequently, though, we often got early dismissal from school when a substantial snowfall or ice storm was predicted. Sometimes we didn’t even have to go to school. We relished those days just as we relished the beef stew or homemade soup Mom fed us on cold winter nights.

My memories of winter are cozy ones. But my memories of spiritual winters are not so fond. What spiritual season are you in right now? Spiritual winter can be as harsh and unrelenting as a blizzard or as dry as a desert. If you listen and allow God to work, He can provide joy even in the winter and He can provide lessons that can only be learned when the green leaves of summer, the red leaves of fall, and the beautiful spring blossoms are stripped away, leaving stark, naked trees and a gray landscape. Winter reminds us of our dependence on God for everything.

Winter can also be a time of rest and waiting. We wait for the warmer weather, the pretty flowers, the sunshine, and we are reminded to appreciate them and not to take them for granted. We rest and wait on God to renew our strength (Isaiah 40:31) and our spirit. If you are not in spiritual winter, count your blessings. If you are, ask God what He wants you to learn. The writer of Ecclesiastes reminds us in ch. 3 v. 1: “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven.” In every season, be grateful and seek God’s counsel and remember that seasons change.

Junk-free January

I’m late. This is no surprise to those who know me well as I am notoriously tardy, despite my best efforts to improve. But this time I am late for something very specific. Not a class, a program or a meeting. But a cleaning.

Most folks of a certain generation would give their homes an overhaul in both fall and spring. My great grandmother, Granny Waid, passed this tradition on to my mom who passed it on to me. I still do this, but I also do a cleaning every January. I can’t seem to help myself. It seems as innate as the migration of monarch butterflies. Maybe it’s the combination of my January birthday and the start of the new year, but I have this need to de-clutter, throw out and re-organize. I get a cheap thrill from rummaging through junk drawers and purging medicine cabinets, spice racks and closets.

But there’s more to my January makeover madness than simply weeding out unnecessary items that have accumulated during the previous twelve months. I also like to do a spiritual housecleaning. I root around in the junk drawers and closets of my heart to see if they are harboring any dustbunnies in the form of bad attitudes, bigotry, and bitterness.

In Luke 6:45, Jesus tells us: “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.” We can only bring good things out of our heart if we purge our hearts of  hidden sins and fill them with the good things of God.  For some, we need to eliminate bigotry and not just the racial kind. Maybe you are bigoted toward others who do not dress the way you do or speak the way you do. Or maybe those who have less money or education than you. Bigotry can take many insidious forms.

Maybe you have a bad attitude. Don’t minimize this. The Israelites got a 40-year sentence of wandering in the desert because they grumbled. God doesn’t take ingratitude lightly. Or perhaps the cobweb in your spiritual closet is bitterness. Bitterness often has its roots in jealousy, anger, or unforgiveness. Are those plaguing you? If so, sweep them out with God’s help. This is not a do-it-yourself project. Call on the Lord as David did in Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Spiritual housecleaning can take time and I guarantee you it is a lot harder than cleaning your home, even including powerwashing the windows. So this year, go to God and ask Him for help to make your spirit brighter and cleaner so others might see the love of Christ in you and desire to know Him better.

Here’s to a junk-free January! Now that January is ending, here's to a junk-free year!