Fall is such a strange time of year, as far as the weather goes. It will be 25 degrees one day and 5 degrees and raining the next. There are leaves…everywhere. Things, instead of coming to life like in spring, are dying, turning bright colors and reminding us that, for better or worse, winter is lurking.
It’s always quite difficult to figure out whether one needs AC or Heat in this season, and so usually things flip-flop between roasting-on-a-spit and icicle-in-Antarctica.
These kinds of temperature differences can be exceedingly frustrating. They also remind me of what it feels like following Jesus sometimes.
Sometimes, we’re on fire. We are feeling great – reading our Bibles regularly and spending time with the Lord in worship, seeing opportunities through our day-to-day to reach out to others and share the joy and love that Jesus has given us.
And sometimes…we are cold. We are going through it. We are feeling distant and like we don’t spend enough time with God, and we feel guilty and busy and tired and empty. This is a yucky feeling. But sometimes it drives us closer. It forces us to seek out the fire, because we’re at the risk of freezing to death. We need Jesus and we know it.
And sometimes, perhaps most dangerously, we are lukewarm. Life is going well. We don’t need a sweater or an ice bath. We go to church, we see our friends, we read our Bibles…sometimes…we move through life feeling like we have it all under control. But we’re also not growing. We’re not on fire, but we’re not cold. We are just…there. Stagnant. This point feels the best sometimes, because the fire hurts. Growth hurts.
I think people can very easily land in this camp. We settle into complacency instead of continuing to return to our King and be filled by him.
So while we all fiddle our furnaces on and off, let that be a reminder to you to not take the season you are in for granting, and also not to despair. The Lord is always willing to meet us where we are, the fire, the freezer, or the middle.
