Wednesday, February 24, 2016

What You Got

“Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot”
- “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell

I know what’s coming. Spring will soon be here and I will be celebrating the warmer weather, greener landscapes, and longer days. We’ll be excited to get outside to play, or run, or bike around town. I’ll make comments about how much I hated winter and how great it feels to be over it.

And then, after a couple of weeks, I’ll start spending more time inside, watching TV or staying out of the heat. I’ll complain about sweating every time I leave the house and start telling the boys we’ve played enough baseball and that I need a break.

Isn’t it funny how quickly we take things for granted? I was reminded of this recently as we have a weekend of mid 60 degree weather and we spent every second we could outside. After the cold winter, it was an amazing weekend and we appreciated it.

I think I’m beginning to come to terms with the cycles of life and the ways that positive and negative situations affects us. I think that I truly need the winter every year to remind myself how wonderful the warmth of summer really is. I need the hard times in my life to remind me how to be grateful for the good.

This is especially true when I think about Easter. It’s easy to put our focus in the resurrection of Jesus and His victory over death and sin. And we’re reminded by Paul that “...if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.” The resurrection is essential to our redemption and relationship with God. But the victory Jesus has over death could only come from His death first. The joy of the resurrection can only really be celebrated because Jesus first died. Even in sending His Son for us, there had to be suffering to fully experience grace.

So maybe all the things we don’t like in this life can give us some perspective.

With the right perspective we can work through a job we don’t like, and better appreciate our home life. We can suffer through a cold and snowy winter so that we can love the long warm days of summer. We can get through the awful cold and flu season to remember how great it feels to be healthy.

March is a great month! It’s the time that Spring begins to show itself, giving us a reprieve from the cold. We’ll get to set our clocks forward to lengthen our days and brighten our moods. And we get to remember the greatest thing that has ever happened in the history of the world: Jesus defeating death and sin so that we can be forgiven and accepted into God’s family.

There will still be some cold days ahead. There will be illness, challenges at work, struggles with finances, and frustrations at home.

But take heart, that Jesus is making all things new. It may feel like Friday… but Sunday is most definitely coming.