Time for Abandon

It is spring, and my shoes are off at last.

It is spring, and the squirrels chase one another in tight circles until they stop to look at me looking at them.

It is spring, and the pigeons atop Old Main flutter with the blank white-bottoms of their wings turned down, pale as the mist of clouds speckling bright blue skies.

It is spring, and I lay outside, drowsing under a sun that feels intense after a winter of weak light and piled snowdrifts. Homework sits forgotten at my feet. There are so many other things to think about as I breathe in the breeze.

It is spring.

Everything seems especially new this season. Compared to about a year ago, when my friend monitored Covid levels in the United States and expressed her concerns to me, and then when I heaved all of my things out of my dorm a short time later, perhaps it's inevitable that now we are especially rearing for regrowth. Indeed, there is a sense this spring of great need. We need newness and fresh life. There is a sense of going forward this spring after a previous season of fear and anger, and a hope of looking forward once again.

Let's praise in this season. The sun is coming out! The temperature is poking up the thermometer! The life our God created is nudging dirt aside to extend elegant tendrils of green into the fresh air! And we should nurture growth within ourselves, too.

I find it effortless to access deep joy in the aftermath of winter. God's Spirit is in the wind as it pushes around my hair and the sunlight makes my eyes squint and the earth presses soft against my feet. Even if you don't connect with the outdoors as I do, it's almost impossible to ignore the grace found in warmth and awakening flora. Everything's moving in response to His hand. But are we? Are we renewing ourselves, or still locked in the ice of our past?

Make intentional time this week to seek God. Ideally, you should time set aside each and every day to pray, read the Bible, and listen; that is the how relationships develop, especially the most treasured ones. If you aren't already in that habit, start now! Start small. Start with a seed of faith. Let it be planted in fertile ground in your heart. Water it with the Word. Warm it by talking to God. Facilitate spring within yourself in order to start growing in earnest.

I started my season early in a greenhouse of trial, so I am now in the process of weeding and pruning. I'm chasing the squirrels of doubt away from the shoots. I am welcoming other believers into my patch of dirt so that we can develop together, through community. I am picking at myself and questioning my leaves and pushing my roots deeper, because I'm not satisfied with being small, nor willing to fall short and risk a drought. I want a huge, abundant, steadfast faith!

Good thing it is spring. It is spring, and it's time to abandon yourself, to get to work giving your life over to God.

Psalm 16 (NIV):

1 Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge. 2 I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing." 3 I say of the holy people who are in the land, "They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight." 4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.

5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. 6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance. 7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. 8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay. 11 You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.