Ever awe-inspiring to me is a tree in spring. As the temperature outside slowly rises, triggering it to awaken from its slumber, the beautiful growing colors awaken something inside all of us as well.
While the gentle fall of quiet white snowflakes in winter brings a sense of excitement to the drawn out, hum-drum months of bitter cold, the lack of color and life can become depressing. Everything looks as if it has died. But anyone who knows anything about trees would never cut one down in the winter simply because it looks dead. There may be little to no sign of life on the outside and no evidence of growth, but there is still life deep down inside. Its roots continue to drink up water and nutrients from the soil. The tree is certainly not dead, it’s simply resting.
Much like trees in winter, many of us experience cold and bitter seasons of the soul. Circumstances consume us. Hope seems to fade. These times can make us feel like the life is literally being drained out of us. There are no words to pray and tears are a familiar friend. Often called “dark nights of the soul,” we all experience seasons of heartbreak, loneliness, illness and death.
Charles Spurgeon, one of the most influential preachers of the 19th century, spoke often of these dark seasons. “Fits of depression come over the most of us. Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy.”
Let me encourage you that all is not lost. For it is during seasons of cold that the spirit strengthens itself for the days ahead.
Spurgeon also said, “The bow cannot be always bent without fear of breaking. Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body...Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength.”
You may, as you read this, be experiencing a winter of the soul that seems like it will never end. You may be so weary that all you can do is take another breath and walk another step. But as long as you have breath inside of you, there is hope inside of you as well! Don’t cut down the tree in winter simply because it looks dead. This season is not the end. Spring is coming, my friend! With a new season comes new growth. The sunshine will warm your face again. Don’t lose faith, no matter how small it may seem. Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.
“Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:30-31
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