Shadows & Sun

(Image via Pinterest)

Since my last post, the Lord has really been hammering the idea of seasons into my stubborn soul.  Yesterday, it was another blog post about our inability to see the clear sky beyond  a storm that struck me.  This morning, it was yet another blog about Ecclesiastes 3:1- “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

Since He is being fairly adamant that I chew, digest, and live this out fully in my life, I’m led this morning to blog further about my struggle with this concept.  In my mind, I can chew on and digest these words.  I can comprehend that life is not a steady line.  There are ups and downs, highs and lows.  Wonderful, fantastic things will happen, but tragedy will also strike.  Yep, I realize the truth of Scripture in my mind, but it’s the process of living fully under the weight of these words that halts my progress.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

When we were freshmen in college, my dear friend Cally and I took a physics class together.  We’d always walk to class together, twice a week, starting way up campus at our dorms and trekking waaay down campus to the science and math buildings (which we very rarely frequented after fulfilling our science requirement).  It was during the fall semester, so the leaves were turning red and the air was slowly getting cooler and crisper as the months crept by.  Besides discovering that Cally would be a lifelong best friend on these long walks, I remember very vividly that we walked a specific way.  We never varied from a certain path, the one that meanders down from Witherspoon, past Dod and Brown, around Prospect Garden, down a hill behind McCosh health center, then onto the home stretch between some fancy big science buildings and across Washington Road.  We took the same path each day, and without fail, we’d always end up at McDonnell Hall.  But what I remember most, as the days got shorter and colder, was the way that we walked.  You see, the path we took was speckled with sun and shadow.  Whenever we walked in the sunny parts, Cally and I would stroll leisurely along the sidewalk, soaking up the warmth of the sun, wishing that summer would stay.  But when we’d encounter a tree- shadowed or building- blocked section of the path, hidden from the sun and chilly in the dark shadow, we’d run.  Over and over we’d repeat this little game, running from the shadows and soaking up the sun. 

This morning as I walked to the metro, I found myself doing the same thing.  Speed walking through chilly and dark shadows, and slooowly soaking up every inch of sun on a chilly April morning.  And as I did, I felt the Lord whispering to my anxious soul, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.”

You see, in life, there’s a time for sun and warmth, and a time for cold shadows.  The thing is, when I walk on the sidewalk, I feel in control.  If I want to stay warm, all I need to do is hurry through the shadowy patches of sidewalk and slow down in the sun.  But in the end, whether I stroll or run, I’m on the same sidewalk, and I’ll always end at the same destination.  

In life, we can’t control when the happy times will end and the down times will come.  I often wish that I could speed through the darkness and drag out the happiness, but I can’t.  Sometimes seasons of pain and hurt will last longer than seasons of joy and peace.  Yet regardless of whether we’re trudging through a season in the shadows or skipping in the light, we’re on the same sidewalk.  We’ll end up at the same destination.  And guess who’s right there with us?  Yep, you got it--- God Himself.  Yahweh.  Our Father.  He is unchanging.  And He is leading us, rejoicing with us, holding us, and carrying us through every season.

The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.

 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

Psalm 23:1-4