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But for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture.” Malachi 4:2
One morning in early October I was sitting at my desk looking out over the backyard. Coffee cup in hand, I watched as the sun made its way over the hill behind the house. The grass was white when the sun first made its appearance, but as the sun moved higher in the sky I noticed that the grass that was still in the shadow was white with frost, while the grass that had been in contact with the sun was green.
As the sun moved higher, the shadow continued its retreat. The white frost disappeared, and green grass silently moved forward across the lawn until it completely overtook the frost. The warmth of the sun defeated the coldness of the frost.
As I watched the sun move across the sky that day, and the frost disappear, I thought about how the dark days of winter are often symbolic of those times in our life when life itself seems disappointing, frustrating, full of fear and gloom. When spring comes, we enjoy the new life of flowers and leaves and warmer days.
The message of the sun and the frost has a two-fold meaning for us in our spiritual and emotional lives. There are times when life is frosty. Those times when we seek a little warmth to refresh our souls. Its no wonder that at creation, the first thing God created was light. No surprise that Jesus proclaimed he was the light of the world. Just as the grass needed the SUN to remove the frostiness in the yard, we need the SON to shine through the gloom to restore us.
The second lesson of the frost is perhaps the most difficult for us. Just as the sun took some time to remove the frost, it takes time to remove the frost in our lives. It takes patience. It takes trust that the SON will do its job. The healing we need is a process that is unique for all of us. I may heal slower than you. My wounds may take longer for the warmth of Jesus to restore.
One last thought. Maybe, just maybe, God is calling you to be the warmth in someone’s frostiness. Perhaps you’ve experienced the warmth of the SON in your life and you can patiently and gracefully encourage someone to know the shadows shrink, the sun rises, healing is available through Jesus, the SON.
The Summer Olympics are upon us. I love watching these amazing athletes perform feats I could never even dream of and to watch sports that, to be honest, I have no understanding of.
But there’s one group of athletes I see as the most amazing and, ironically perhaps, get the least amount of press and that is the athletes in the Paralympics. Athletes that make it to the Olympics endure a tremendous amount of work to make it to the top. They may sacrifice friends, family time, and put off careers in order to make it to the big show. I don’t mean, in any way, to diminish the hard work these men and women put into their sport.
Paralympian’s, however, have one added hurdle to overcome and that is physical disability. It amazes me how they reach down just a little bit deeper to say, ‘I can do this’, my disability won’t keep me from improving my ability. My “disability” my define me, but I won’t let it destroy me.’
Someone once said, ‘The greatest enemy most of us face in pursuit of success is our own fear of failure’.
Another author states, ‘cemeteries are full of unwritten books, unsung songs and dreams that will never come true because of fear of failure.’
The Apostle Paul endured many struggles in his life. Once a well-respected leader in his religious community, he became an outcast because of his new relationship with Jesus Christ. The Romans hated him, the Jews hated him and many ‘Christians’ were leery of him. He was beaten, stoned and left for dead, wrongfully accused, shipwrecked and apparently suffered from unknown physical problems. Yet he writes,
“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!” (1 Corinthians 9:24)
Like many of us, Paul needed to make a decision to move forward in spite of adversity and uncertainty, or give up. None of us would have blamed him if he’d chosen the latter. Yet just like the paralympian who pursues the big show in spite of adversity, he pressed on knowing that like any race, only one wins, but everyone runs to win.
What adversity is keeping you from pressing on? Worry? Fear? Broken relationships? Financial difficulty? Take a lesson from the paralympian. Don’t allow a ‘disability’ keep you from pursuing your ‘ability.’
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 