New Seasons
Josh Knipple gives us another one of his famous family experiences. We can learn a lot if we listen to our kids and grandkids. Thx Josh
As many of you know from my writing, our family loves the winter. We love being out in the snow, riding a mountain, and embracing God in His creation. This past weekend was a testament to that, as it was our SFC (Skiiers and snowboarders for Christ) retreat. The theme of SFC is simple, “Love Jesus, love snow, this is your community.” From last Thursday though Sunday we had over 90 of us join together at Snowshoe WV for a time of worship, fellowship, riding, and JOY! It is crazy to think that this is now our eighth or ninth year leading it and seeing how much it has grown. The really cool thing this year though was seeing the number of young kids who were there with us. It was no longer just our kids but about 25 others also, and kids have a way to see things differently.
As the weekend was coming to a close, Silas and I were standing out on the back porch and he made a comment like, “I don’t want the season to be over yet. I want to keep snowboarding.” Looking down at how a lot of the snow had now started to melt off and turn to mud, I had to try to explain to him how seasons change. “Think about all that you have coming up, baseball, mountain biking, camping, the outdoors!” You could see his mind circling around that thought and the excitement building, but you could also see the bittersweet emotion taking hold in his brain. Wanting to hold on to what he has known for the last few months. The truth is, of all our kids, Silas does not like the word “Change.” Any type of change throws him off. Being on a different baseball team, changing grades, even the simplest thing as a delay at school. If he doesn’t know ahead of time about it, change bites him good, and the emotions start flowing. It is only when you can get his mind refocused on what lies ahead instead of the things behind that you can get him to refocus. It reminds me of the quote by C.S. Lewis, “There are far greater things ahead than those we leave behind.”
Thinking about this idea of change, how many of us hold on to what we know instead of allowing God to change our hearts. We hold onto what we have always done or known. We cling to the habits, good and bad, because change might send us down a different course. Practically speaking, I could try to hold on to winter a few weeks longer and desire in my brain to still be hitting the slopes, but reality says I’d be trying to ski down a pile of mud, dirt and rocks, hurting myself. Sometimes in life, change, just like the seasons, is inevitable. We can either embrace it, accept it, or live in the memory of what once was.
Solomon tells us that there is a season for everything. Spring is about the season of new life. Do we see it that way, or do we gripe because it is something that is out of our control?
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
Allowing Jesus to lead our lives is a lot the same way. In John 8 Jesus tells the adulterous woman to change. His exact words were, “Go and sin no more.” Can you imagine with me if she started gripping and complaining saying, “but I don’t want to change, this is all I ahed ever known.” We use the word repent in church circles which has the exact connotation of change. It means do a 180. Turning from what is keeping you from God and doing a 180 to Him!
What if there is something in your life right now that Jesus is trying to point out from the deck, saying the snow is melting, it is time to let go of it, I have something better ahead for you. Maybe it was even great for a season and He will bring it back around one day, but for the time being, you need to let it go. As Elsa famously declares in Frozen, “Let it go, Let it go.”
John 8:11, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Make it a Seasoning Saturday! God is good…