Soul Seasons, Part 2: Spring

Ah, springtime. I love when winter begins to withdraw, and spring slowly takes center stage. You know that part of spring where things are still colorless and muddy? That's not quite my favorite; however, the part of spring where creation has come to life, and newness is in full swing, now that is more my cup of tea. It's funny though, because even the muddy part of spring is a welcome change from the lingering frigidity of winter, isn't it? Ralph Waldo Emerson said "The Earth laughs in flowers." How right he is. There is a joy that creation bubbles out when springtime rolls around.

So how do you know when you are experiencing springtime of the soul? Well, look around the landscape of your heart. Do you see sudden growth in areas that you didn't notice before? Are you seeing victory where there once was defeat? Are you enjoying and appreciating the beauty of God in the most "muddy" of places? Then, my friend, spring has sprung in your soul. To clarify though, just as seasons can overlap in creation, so seasons of the soul can overlap as well. You might feel a sampling of many seasons, but undoubtedly, there is one that emerges to the forefront. 

The change in climate demands a change in everyday life. What do I mean? Well, for example, in spring, there are things I need to put away, clean up, and rearrange. There are things I do out of necessity, and there are things I want to do because I want some eye candy after a long winter. When you are in springtime of the soul, there are things you have to do out of necessity, and things that you can do for fun. The two concepts I'm about to share are by no means comprehensive, but just a few thoughts that come to mind when new life is all around your soul.

Put Away

"...Let us put everything out of our lives that keeps us from doing what we should..." Hebrews 12: 1b

There are all kinds of beautiful things growing inside you, my friend! Maybe you have a new dream, passion, or calling. Maybe you are noticing that you're walking in new freedom and victory in your life. If you are growing like a weed, it's time to make room for that growing. There's this sudden urge a lot of people get in the spring that is called "spring cleaning." Maybe you're not among those folks, but hear me out for a bit. Something about the confining winter makes our worlds seem smaller, doesn't it? Then the thaw comes, and suddenly, the world seems bigger as the piles of snow get smaller. It's almost as if everyone wants to maximize all that space gained from winter's demise. Not only are dust bunnies being swept away, but there are those mercilessly de-cluttering closets, garages, and basements. Goods, clothing and furniture are burgeoning on thrift store platforms. That is what we must do when we are growing. What habits have we developed in long soul winters that need to be kicked to the curb? What spiritual clutter is littering our hearts and minds? What can we ask God to illuminate that needs to go so that room can be made for growth? These are all questions pregnant with potential to change the atmosphere of our souls.

Beautify

"By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." Proverbs 24: 3-4

One of my favorite things to do in the spring is bring something beautiful into my living spaces. I purchased a few candles, gave my bedroom a little makeover with things I already owned, and made a nautical themed wreath to put on my door. Spring is a time when finding beautiful things is easy. Spiritually though, beauty goes beyond just having good taste. There's one sure fire way to bring beauty into your soul: acquiring wisdom. God is the source of all heavenly wisdom, and wisdom is found in His word. If you're looking for rare and beautiful treasures to festoon the halls of your heart, look no further than asking God for and diligently seeking wisdom. Want a new way to approach your strong willed child? Trying to find a purpose statement for 2015, and ways to live it out? Have finances you're trying to re-align? There's a verse for that. In fact, more than likely, many verses. There is wisdom waiting for you in scripture that will bring beauty to your life: but not just any kind of beauty, a rare beauty. A beauty that can't be found on Pinterest, or in the mall. A beauty that can't be sculpted and toned in the gym, or carved by a scalpel. I speak of the kind of beauty that lasts forever, and brings life, healing, and hope to a world drab with hopelessness. If you're experiencing springtime of the soul, even in the smallest degree, bring in beautiful wisdom to teach you which way to go, and which way to grow.

 "Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced." James 3: 17 THAT is a beautiful thing.

Put away. Beautify. Soak in every bit of this growing season you're in. Be renewed. Come alive. Spring forward; this is what you were made for.

Soul Seasons, Part 1

 A few days ago, I completed a task I dread with every fiber of my being: switching fall and winter clothes for spring and summer clothes. Wait, I think I just made this Herculean task sound like a trip to the pharmacy.  If only it were that easy. I take out 90% of the clothes from each drawer, dig plastic bins out of the closet, painstakingly go through each folded item, figure out if it'll fit the child or not, and either put it in the now emptier drawer, place it in the pile to consign, or place it in the pile to donate to the thrift store. Then I have to put away things, clean my mess, and do it all over again. Times 3. It's mind-numbing drudgery, only made more palatable by listening to music and making sure the kids are in school. And I do it all because of one simple fact: seasons change.

It would be weird to let my kids traipse on the playground in 90 degree weather wearing long sleeves and long pants, right? Imprudent if I let them wear their thick winter jackets to the beach, correct? With the changing of seasons comes a necessary flexibility on our part. Some may rejoice at the thought of changing things over from winter to spring. I mean, who wouldn't be excited about putting away snow shovels and bringing out garden equipment? Well, maybe some. But I digress. Then there's the changing of seasons from summer to fall, and then even tougher, from fall to winter. I love me some autumnal goodness; yet I have friends who hate the fall because of what's coming afterward. Seasons seem to draw emotions out of us that we don't even know are there. Seasons are a pretty big deal- they even determine where people prefer to live. The point is, there isn't one person on Earth who isn't effected by seasons; in climate, or of the soul.

You see seasons in climate are quite conspicuous. I can see flowers growing where there once were mountains of snow. I can see leaves growing on tree branches that once were bare. And my coat? Optional. It's downright comfy outside- a far cry from the muscle tensing, sub-zero wind chill factors of a few months ago. Seasons of the soul however, those are more inconspicuous. More personal. More palpable.

What season is your soul in? Are you in spring? Do you see lots of emotional, spiritual, and mental growth? Is there newness all around you? Or are you in summer? Are you finding the joy in everything? Are you finding deep pockets of rest and refreshment? How about autumn? Are you in a place of letting go? Are you finding the beauty in the releasing of things? And finally, are you in winter? Are you a bit withdrawn, growing silently yet steadily, like a seed under a blanket of snow? I have to be honest: I feel like I'm in autumn. And although I love me some autumnal goodness, letting go can be hard. Letting go of control. Letting go of comfort zones. Letting go of all the things I counted as essential to me feeling like I'm in the drivers' seat instead of the back row.

While I made the clothes switchover, I was carefully taking inventory. Wes and Janessa need more shorts, while Evan doesn't need much. Grant could use a few more shorts, but other than that he's all set. Three out of four Martins need flip flops. With each season of the soul, we need to be taking careful inventory of what our souls need to thrive in that particular season. Could you use more alone time? Would your heart benefit from a class? Would more margins in your schedule be beneficial, or could you use some more meaningful activity? And where do God, grace, and faith fit into all that?

Since every season takes up a certain amount of time, I'm going to carve the four seasons of the soul into my next 4 blog posts. My hope and prayer is that depending on what season of the soul you're in, one will resonate with you. You might even be in between seasons- cause there's such a thing as that too. Sprummer, anyone? :) Let's journey through this together. Let's see what treasures we'll find as we explore how spring, summer, autumn, and winter of the soul can affect what we dig out, and what we put away for a while.

Breathing In Hope

 Breathless. When I think of that word, I think of the time my sister, at 10 years old, slipped on a puddle in the bathroom and fell onto the side of the tub. The wind was knocked out of her so forcefully that she passed out. Or I remember the time my son broke his fall on his arm and his diaphragm. His first complaint was not the arm that was then broken, but that he got the wind knocked out of him. I think of this past Christmas, when the burning frankincense I had smelled gave me a reaction that almost sent me to the hospital- breathless.

Most of the time, we don't think about breathing. It comes naturally; the casual rise and fall of our chests goes completely unnoticed. There is too much life happening all around us to think about it. But every once in a while, life knocks the wind out of us- and breathing, or lack of it, is the only thing we think about. The only thing that's important. The only thing that matters. Being made breathless can happen physically, but it's not limited to that. It can happen in a moment. Like the moment you get shocking news, the moment you discover drugs in your child's room, or the moment you realize your marriage is in trouble. It can happen in the moment your doctor tells you the diagnosis, the moment in the office when they let you go, or the moment your car is slammed by another. Have you ever experienced that sudden jolt that jerks everything important into alignment? Suddenly, all the important things in life come floating to the surface, while all the unimportant things settle out of sight. 

Usually when life knocks the wind out of me, a fear blizzard forms, and the "what-ifs" come flying at my face like a gust full of snowflakes. And I see my husband, my kids, and my relationship with God with stunning clarity. The thoughts brought to mind aren't the material possessions I want, the comparisons I make, or the arguments I had that day with the kids. The thoughts brought to my mind are, "Did I love enough in life?" "God, are You still in control?" "Will my worst case scenario come true?" "Why did I spend so much time on the things that didn't matter?" The gifts that breathlessness brings are crystal clarity, properly held priorities, and this all important question: What am I breathing in?

I saw a movie last night where there was a crisis on a plane, and the passengers were energetic with panic. There were screaming women, frantic men, and pandemonium in the cabin. The captain, desperate to calm down his passengers, pressed the button to release the oxygen masks from the ceiling. The passengers were instructed to sit down and place the masks on their faces. They obeyed, and all got to task on breathing in and out. There was oxygen already in that cabin, because the frightened passengers were obviously very much alive. But the captain knew that they needed concentrated doses of oxygen to nourish their taxed lungs and hearts. He knew that getting them to sit and breathe would give them something to do other than panic. He knew that as they breathed in and out intentionally, that in time, their pulse would slow down and their lungs would relax.

If life has dealt you a blow in the stomach, and you're gasping for air, you're not alone. I've been there, as frightened as those passengers on the plane. Screaming, crying, and desperate for relief.  What are we going to breathe in? Will we heave and gasp fear, panic, and despair? Will we choke and sputter chaos, discouragement, and hopelessness? Or will we listen to the voice of our Captain to sit down, place the mask of faith on our faces, and breathe in concentrated doses of hope? The air in your lungs won't change your circumstance. The hope you breathe in will still allow for tears to make their way down your face. What you breathe in through the mask of faith is the hope that will keep you anchored when the wind and the waves threaten to tear your life apart. 

"Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls." Hebrews 6: 18b-19a

I'm not promised that difficulties will go away. I'm not promised things will be easy. I'm not promised that life will go back to normal. I'm promised something even greater than that. 

I'm promised that the hope I breathe in through faith in Christ will be my anchor when the wind knocks the air out of my sails. 

Hope in what? Hope that God is faithful. Hope that He can redeem anything. Hope that He is in control when I feel out of control. Hope that when the pressure in my cabin changes, that the God of grace will drop my faith mask for me to use just in the nick of time. And He will for you too- as long as you draw breath, and beyond. You are anchored. You are loved. God has made a way for you to breathe again.

Something's Rotten in the State of Denmark

 One of the opening lines of the play Hamlet reads, "Something's rotten in the state of Denmark." This line became a phrase used for anything foul that is at play underneath the surface of something. Last week I discovered something foul that was at play in a backpack belonging to one of my kids. A decomposing pear. 

It was another school morning in the Martin house, and people were in full swing getting ready. I was barking orders while simultaneously packing the kids snacks. In a hurry, I grabbed their lunchboxes and began to pile them for emptying and refilling, only something was a little off about one of the lunchboxes. I sniffed the edge, and winced at the acrid sweet smell of fermented fruit. "What is that? Spilled Anti-Bac? Juice?" My mind rushed to a conversation that I had with one of my kids who complained that it smelled like beer in the minivan. "That's impossible, Hun- there isn't any way it's that." I flashed forward to the mystery at hand, and decided to use my extra sensitive nose (thank you, 4 pregnancies for that blessing and curse) to track down the unpleasant odor. I stuck my head inside the backpack that I pulled said lunchbox from, and the smell overpowered me. "Ain't NOBODY got time for this on a school morning!!!" I seethed under my breath (or what was left of it). 

I carried the back pack to the kitchen counter, and inspected the contents of the bag under the bright lights. And I saw it- whatever it was, it was brown, mushy, stunk to high heaven, and was nestled in between a few folders and papers at the bottom of the bag.  Now completely repulsed, I grabbed a wad of paper towels and extracted what promised to be a legitimate (stinky) setback to an already hurried morning. I felt anger rise up in me. I called up the child in question, and held out the putrid produce for him to see. "Oh", he sheepishly responded, "That must have been the pear that I didn't have room for in my lunchbox, so I left it in my bag. I guess I forgot about it." Understatement of the year.

We got busy with the task of righting every rotten wrong inside the bag, and decided what to keep and wash, and what to pitch. I was shocked at how many papers were leaked on to. One little shriveled up pear causing that much damage, and that big of a setback. When it was all said and done, that putrid pear cost me about 25 minutes. 25 minutes that I honestly didn't have. We were late to school. As I drove, my insides were still at a rolling boil. I was angry at the child. Angry at the pear. Angry at the setback. Suddenly, my angry thoughts were interrupted by the bickering of kids. There was a rotten, sour spirit in my van. And it all began with me.

You see, if I had the luxury of rewinding the tape from that morning, I would see the moment that I extracted the pear, and seen a clear cross roads. I could have a) decided to laugh it off, joking around about the irony of having his own personal compost heap in his back pack on Earth Day. I could have eased up on the time factor by putting it into perspective. I could have used grace as a cushy place to have this setback land on. Or I could have b) gotten seething mad about the whole thing, creating tension in my home, tension in the kids, and tension in the van. Sadly I chose the latter.

There was a source to that stench in the bag. It didn't appear out of nowhere. The odor was coming from a mushy, brown, forgotten and forlorn pear. And until I dealt with that pear, and everything it leaked on, I wouldn't have peace for my nose. Much like that scenario, there was a source to that tension in our house, in the kids, in the van. I was the one who perpetuated that sour spirit because of the root of anger in my heart. The root of pride that didn't want to be late. The root of a bad attitude. And just like that pear leaked on everything it touched, so my bad attitude leaked onto everything I touched. The kids, the house, the van. Had I chosen to let it go, they could have had the freedom to let it go too. The good news is that my mothering isn't defined by my rotten attitude in that moment. It's defined by a God who allows me to fall on my face so I can recognize my need for a Savior. Friends, it's in those moments of rottenness of spirit that we can trust that God will show us, if we're willing, the source of that bad attitude. The process will be messy, as He sorts through our baggage with us, and it might be a perceived setback. But in the end, we'll be better for it. Case in point, my child's backpack and lunch box are now clean as a whistle. That's already an improvement! It's a pit stop in the process of keeping his bag clean. I'm sure there will be another pit stop in the future, as we will experience pit stops in our quests to keep clean hearts.

Much like the backpack that held my child's belongings, our hearts are the epicenter of our lives. There's no such thing as one area of rottenness staying contained. There is always cross-contamination. 

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Proverbs 4:23

The contents of your heart are precious, my friend. So when you have something unpleasant coming to the surface, choose to be brave. View this setback as a setup for success. Lay all the contents of your heart bare before God, and let Him lovingly show you the root of that ornery attitude. Because when it comes to your heart, content determines course. May your course be clean. May your willingness to stay clean be tenacious. And may the aroma coming from your heart be sweet, coating every area of your life.