In only a few weeks the winter will pass and Lake Wassermann will break open to
spring waters moving between the ice flows, as the banks, yet brown, prepare for color.
As the winter is a series of abandonments – dying back until buried under a cloak of white
death awaiting resurrection, so is life a series of abandonments. Dreams and expectations
die back and life feels ice cold. All the show of color and celebration that makes life worth while is replaced by cold and bleak, white and black. Such confinements of life have sharp edges that cut out attention to that which glitters and we are forced to think of greater and deeper realities. Life hidden under the frozen field of disappointments and disasters must stay until the spring comes with hope and joy arising out of a new season.
Oswald Chambers comments….
There is a life hidden in Christ that cannot be defeated by winters. Rather winters prepare us to abandon everything but Him. All of our questions also must die. Abandonment means to refuse to ask any more, “What about this?” True abandonment is to leave all to God. We abandon all our suppositions and questions and discover the deeper life that is found only by trusting and entrusting all to Him.
I remember leaving the excitement and fulfilling life as a pastor in a large church in Las Vegas to return to yet another dying husband who brought love and joy back into me. Yet, again, I had to abandon my dreams and all I counted as life to tend to another death. But, under the deadly cold and snow, God was reinforcing Himself as a life source which was absolute and eternal. We humans do want to escape such realities and keep life carefree and optimal. Yet, the One who loves us desires to bring us alone unto Himself to find life that will never be defeated – fruitful in all seasons – even in the cold of winters. Such life is found only in the One named Jesus.
spring waters moving between the ice flows, as the banks, yet brown, prepare for color.
As the winter is a series of abandonments – dying back until buried under a cloak of white
death awaiting resurrection, so is life a series of abandonments. Dreams and expectations
die back and life feels ice cold. All the show of color and celebration that makes life worth while is replaced by cold and bleak, white and black. Such confinements of life have sharp edges that cut out attention to that which glitters and we are forced to think of greater and deeper realities. Life hidden under the frozen field of disappointments and disasters must stay until the spring comes with hope and joy arising out of a new season.
Oswald Chambers comments….
There is a life hidden in Christ that cannot be defeated by winters. Rather winters prepare us to abandon everything but Him. All of our questions also must die. Abandonment means to refuse to ask any more, “What about this?” True abandonment is to leave all to God. We abandon all our suppositions and questions and discover the deeper life that is found only by trusting and entrusting all to Him.
I remember leaving the excitement and fulfilling life as a pastor in a large church in Las Vegas to return to yet another dying husband who brought love and joy back into me. Yet, again, I had to abandon my dreams and all I counted as life to tend to another death. But, under the deadly cold and snow, God was reinforcing Himself as a life source which was absolute and eternal. We humans do want to escape such realities and keep life carefree and optimal. Yet, the One who loves us desires to bring us alone unto Himself to find life that will never be defeated – fruitful in all seasons – even in the cold of winters. Such life is found only in the One named Jesus.
RSS Feed