Thursday, May 25, 2017

Warming Up to Winter

I grew up in a seasonless place, Miami, Florida. 

No fall.

No winter.

No spring.

Always summer.


When I moved to Georgia I was seasonally challenged, so it should have come as no surprise to me when I was seasonally resistant to the Lord. I did not want to be in a different season, especially a difficult one. I always wanted it to be summer.

Sweet tea.

Green grass.

Slower pace.


Fireflies.

I was giving in to the mere-exposure effect, a psychological oddity that occurs when people develop a preference for things because they are familiar to them. I like familiar even the worst kind of familiar and God was trying to break me of that. Honestly, He still is.

In the past when the Lord moved me into a different season, I would always try to go back. It took me getting stuck in an elevator, in a place He had called me out of, for me to see it. He told me I was stuck because I kept going back to places He had called me out of. Sound familiar? Ouch!

I cried -- because He was right.

I sobbed -- because I had been doing it all my life.

They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
Exodus 14:11-12

Naturally, I did what any person experiencing a psychological phenomenon would do, I asked Him, “Why do I keep doing this?”

He answered.

He told me it was because I was afraid.

He told me it was because I did not trust Him.

He was right on both accounts.


He does not always remove something from our life because it is bad, sometimes He just has something better. Sometimes He just wants us to grow in our walk with Him. Sometimes He just wants us to trust.

Fear will keep you holding onto the good instead of receiving the better. Fear will tell you that you cannot trust Him and you should just stay put. Fear will tell you a myriad of things to keep you from experiencing the fullness of the seasons He has for you.

Seasons are not just weather fluctuations, they serve a purpose.

Seasons serve a purpose.

In creation.

In me.

In you.


So, I am trading my preference for His plan and warming up to winter.



For everything there is a season,

and a time for every matter under heaven: 

Ecclesiastes 3:1

1 comment: