It's Gonna Get Bad...

Terrible things are about to happen.

I just heard on the news that very soon, all the trees will lose their lush green vegetation and become barren of leaves and fruit. It will get so bad that grass will stop growing and become brown and dull. Even with adequate amounts of sunshine and rain, few crops will survive.

Temperatures will drop precipitously. In fact, things will be so terrible that we are likely to experience days in which travel is difficult, if not impossible. Streets will be effectively closed down. Those who have failed to adequately prepare will find grocery store shelves empty of the most basic supplies of life.

Sounds bad, doesn’t it? Of course, you already have figured out that I’m describing the normal change of the seasons. But if you use the right language, you can make it sound pretty awful. Certain words paint pictures of despair, even horror.

And while some of us may not be excited about the change in seasons (personally, I love fall and winter), few of us would say we “fear” this change. In fact, we expect it. The truth is that we in this part of the country would be far more concerned if we experienced 90 degree days in December or a sudden resurgence of lawn growth in January, because we know that isn’t normal. Whether we like the change in seasons, we know what to expect.

In a similar way, we shouldn’t allow the events of life to unnerve us as much as they do. The truth is, we’re going to experience various “seasons” of life. They change, like the weather. We may not be able to predict what to expect in the next season of life, but neither should we dread it.

As we begin our church-wide Life Group study based on John Ortberg’s book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat, we need to remind ourselves that we are all going to experience events of life that call for courage and faith. And just as we don’t fear the changes from summer to fall or from winter to spring, we should approach the changes in our lives with a resolve to trust God to see us through.