JANUARY 2017 EDITION

SEASONS:

I can think of many kinds of them.  Obviously, there are yearly seasons. What is your favorite’? Mine is fall with football, hunting, cooler weather, turning leaves, and fires in the fireplace. I hear that in Alaska, there are only two seasons, winter and mud!

There are musical seasons such as Vivald’s “Four Seasons” for those who love the classical vein or those who like the classics, there is:

“Big Girls Don’t Cry” by The Four Seasons. There are, also “Autumn Leaves” by Roger Williams“, “Winter” by George Winston,  ”Summertime” by George Gershwin, and “Spring Breakdown” by Luke Bryan.

In my world, there are three sports seasons. There is football, The Final Four and the World Series and, in some rare instances, the final match of the World Cup and, of course, the summer and winter Olympics.

Then there are seasons of life:

William Shakespeare poetically describes seasons of life in

 “As You Like It. Act II, Scene VII,”

“All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances.  And one man in his time plays many parts. His acts being in seven ages”

He describes the seven seasons as infancy, childhood, the lover, the soldier, the justice, the elderly, and then the infirmed passing from the stage.

Scripture talks about the seasons in Eccelsiastes3:1-8:

To everything there is a season.

A time for every purpose under the sun.

A time to be born and a time to die.

A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted.

A time to kill and a time to heal…

A time to weep and a time to laugh.

A time to mourn  and a time to dance.

A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing.

A time to lose a time to seek.

A time to keep silent a time to speak.

A time to love a time to hate.

A time for war and a time for peace.

For me, I am discovering there are also seasons of relationships. Think about it:

The best friends you had in childhood move on.

Your buds in high school graduate and are rarely seen, except at maybe 50-year reunions when we have nothing to prove to anyone.

Your college friends or Frat. Bros. or Sorority sister all go their separate ways.

Your social groups may change because of either marital status or lack of mutual interests.

Church friends may shift with membership changes.

For me, in my twenty-five years of ministry to men, I have had men’s groups grow, evolve, change and die.

If we are fortunate, we may retain some relationships over the course of a lifetime.  I have a friend that I have known for sixty-three years. We drifted apart because of circumstances but the foundational relationship remains as we have reconnected.

I have a group of friends from our Young Life days who have been retreating together for twenty-seven years. What a blessing! Sadly, however, we lost one of the guys this year to heart failure!

Yes, there are seasons for everything. Change is inevitable. Some change is good. Some is difficult. Some change happens with lightning speed. Some is barely noticeable.

ONE THING REMAINS THROUGH ALL THE SEASONS:

 GOD IS CRAZY ABOUT YOU! HE IS CRAZY ABOUT ME!

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU CAN DO TO MAKE HIM LOVE YOU ANY LESS NOR IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO MAKE HIM LOVE YOU ANY MORE!

HOW DO YOU RESPOND TO THIS KIND OF UNCHANGEABLELOVE?

MINISTRY NEWS

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Blessings to you for your friendship, support and encouragement.