Here's Pastor Dave McDowell's weekly devotional that he sends out to members of his church. Dave is my brother and serves as the Music Minister at Stewartstown UMC in PA.
To everything, there is a season.....
Sometimes I wish mine would follow the calendar a bit better.
I love the different seasons of the year.
Each one has its beauty and its unique challenges.
Spring has it's emerging beauty and life,
it also comes with 100 pounds of mulch that causes the back to ache.
Summer has warm nights and time to play outside,
it also has stifling heat and humidity.
Fall resounds with a palette of colors that thrill the senses,
it also has leaves to rake and another aching back.
Winter has snow that quietly blankets the earth in white,
it also has......well, it has a lot of things.
Most people like things to occur in their proper season.
But it doesn't always happen that way.
For me,
the furnace service man comes to the house each summer,
and runs a 10 minute test of the furnace,
when it is 90 degrees or hotter outside.
Or as a church musician,
when I receive Easter preview music in December,
and Christmas music in July.
Or this year, a polar vortex that hangs around into March.
Usually in March, I am thinking about my upcoming Shamrock Shake.
This March I am just shaking.............from the single digit temperatures.
If you live in the Northeast,
you know all about polar vortexes,
like the one we are currently experiencing.
You know its a polar vortex,
when ski resorts close.
You know its a polar vortex,
when escaped prisoners return on their own.
You know its a polar vortex,
when polar bears at the zoo choose to stay indoors.
You know its a polar vortex,
when you open the refrigerator to heat the house.
You know its a polar vortex,
when people look forward to getting a fever.
and my favorite......
You know its a polar vortex,
that if the thermometer had been an inch longer,
you would have frozen to death.
Okay, enough with the polar vortex jokes..........
During a polar vortex,
some people like to get on a plane,
any plane that is pointed anywhere towards the equator.
Not this guy.
During a polar vortex, I do things like.....
read a book by the fire,
take an afternoon nap under an extra blanket,
or make a hot cup of cocoa with extra mini-marshmallows.
But not this polar vortex.
instead, I decided that a good use ofmy time was to
defrost my freezer.
Let me say this about that.
Defrosting a freezer during a polar vortex
in an unheated garage is not an easy thing to do
especially when it is colder outside than it is in Alaska.
Now don't get the wrong idea.
It's not that I WANTED to defrost the freezer.
I have been known to do curious things at curious times,
like taking a nap before going to bed,
or brushing my teeth before a eating a meal,
or washing my hands before taking a shower.
Yes, I sometimes do things "out of season"
But this time.
I HAD to defrost the freezer.
Somehow, the door to the freezer didn't close completely.
Left partially open,
frost built up inside the freezer
till I couldn't see the contents in the freezer anymore.
It is not easy to defrost a freezer
when the temperature OUTSIDE the freezer is colder
than the temperature INSIDE the freezer.
So I came in full ski suit wear,
armed with every heating weapon at my disposal.....
candles, ceramic heaters, blow dryers
to melt the frozen tundra
She was stubborn.
But I was on a mission.
There were soups to be saved,
raspberries to be rescued,
and enchiladas to be emancipated.
It wasn't easy.
My first attempts to blow hot air
across the frozen wasteland
were met with frosty contempt.
My freezer vortex was not going to give up her hostages easily.
She had Mother Nature on her side,
but I had Father Time, plus a super turbo 2000 watt blow dryer.
It took hours, and days
but slowly I began to see the edge of my apple dumplings.
Eventually I pulled my chicken breasts out from under the avalanche,
and ultimate victory was achieved when my pork loin saw the light of day.
Sometimes unusual things happen in unusual seasons.
During the course of my ministry,
I have worked with literally thousands of young people.
Sometimes, they are ready to hear God's Word and let it change their lives.
Sometimes, they are not ready.
Different youth, different seasons.
I have always understood that one of my ministry seasons is to plant seeds,
seeds that will someday bear the fruit of the Kingdom.
There are no guarantees that any one person
will enter a season of salvation and discipleship.
That is up to God.
My task was and is, is to plant seeds.
Yesterday I was given a gift.
A young lady names Sarah found me on Facebook.
Now in her late 30's
she told me how she never took the youth ministry seriously as a teenager.
She was only there because her friends came to youth group.
And if there was a more enticing alternative to youth group on any given Sunday,
she would choose it.
She got into trouble like many teens do and her life began to spiral out of control
But in a later season of her life, she found the Lord and they became friends.
She now lives with His Spirit in her heart
and her life has purpose and meaning.
She messaged me to thank me for planting those early seeds.
I was so grateful to hear from her and to know the Lord had found her.
It is easy for Christians to forget that there are spiritual seasons.
And sometimes we are in seasons of birth, growth, harvest, and rest.
When I heard from Sarah, I was in a season of discouragement.
In the midst of that personal season,
I was given a season of hope.
Sometimes our seasons surprise us,
much like a polar vortex in March.
But the good news is that no matter
how strange the season is,
the Lord has a purpose for each of our lives.
It just takes faith and encouragement to see it through,
and sometimes a super turbo 2000 watt blow dryer.
Last item out of the freezer wasteland????
my bag of ice cubes.
God is faithful.
Now you be faithful as well.
"But his delight is in the law of the Lord
and in His law, he meditates day and night.
And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither;
and whatever he does, he prospers."
Psalm 1: 2-3
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