Earlier in the week, as I was sensing my own initial weariness of the winder, someone mentioned to me how they are starting to go stir-crazy. As the week progressed, the same theme was presented to me by a wider spectrum of people in a variety of ways. So I did a little math on the situation and came to conclusion that I find very personally helpful: Winter starts on or about December 21 and ends on or about March 21. This makes the mid-point of winter to be TODAY – February 6.
My friends, here is the good news: we are already halfway through the winter! No wonder we are getting a little weary (even though it has not been all that bad)! However, I use the term “already” to emphasize that the worst is behind us and spring is more than just a distant speck on the horizon. Remember, pitchers and catchers report next week – with the first exhibition game just ten days later.
In other words, since we have reached the halfway point, it is all downhill from here. The days are getting noticeably longer. According Weatherspark.com, in February the average daily high temperature for Detroit increases by 7 degrees, from 32 to 38, and overcast conditions decrease from 63% to 58%. While I’m not quite ready to start wearing shorts on my morning walk, the thought has crossed my mind.
And all of a sudden, as I am halfway through writing this, I am wondering what my point might be!
Traversing the winter has me thinking about our faith/discipleship journey. In this past week, since preaching about “experiencing change” on Sunday (that was fun!), I have met with a couple where the wife was just put into hospice care, a young lady who recently had her third miscarriage, and two grieving families … with the age of the two called home ladies being 90 and 100.
At the funeral for the 90-year-old I said, “I have been a Christian for over 70 years (It will be 72 on March 6). I attended a Christian elementary school for eight years and have been a pastor for over 40 years. Yet, there are still many things I do not understand. However, the older I get, the more this seems like a blessing! … Living in this world, we are surrounded by sorrow and death, challenges and disappointments, and many, many unanswered questions. Yet this is not a reason for despair, for, as John notes ’How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are!’” (1 John 3.1)
And this is no “halfway” promise. The word “lavish” means “to bestow something in generous or extravagant quantities.” That’s exactly how God’s love in Christ Jesus is given to us. He doesn’t hold anything back.
Yet, at the same time, John assures us that the best is yet to come. He goes on to say, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, but what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3.2) In one of the great paradoxes of the Bible, we have it all right now while at the same time are just halfway!
Which gets me back to the joy of unanswered questions. I don’t need the answers. I might not even understand them if they were given to me. All I need is the Father’s love lavished on me through Jesus by the Holy Spirit. This will get me through the rest of the winter (and every “winter of discontent”), all the challenges and changes, and every single unanswered question and paradoxical answer that come my way … it might not be easy at times, and I may go stir-crazy or worse, but the Father’s love will never just be sent to me “halfway”. He’s always “all in” for me … AND FOR YOU.
