An Eternal Winter
Time to re-new, re-set, re-ignite and re-claim
Conspiracy theories, fear, panic and an attitude of lack have all surfaced throughout this pandemic season. It feels like we’ve entered an eternal winter where some people have taken on the mindset of a grizzly bear. Stocking up on food rations and supplies, growling at anyone who gets in their way because, gosh darn it, seventy-five packets of toilet rolls are clearly not enough! This eternal winter can feel like we’re going to be in this hibernated state for quite a while yet. However, it’s not all bad. Your life story is still in progress, my friend, and you just need to use this time, this season, this what seems like an eternal winter to re-new, re-set, re-ignite and re-claim some things that have been lying dormant within you.
Remember Savron, the Dark Lord who lay behind all the terrible things that happened in The Lord of the Rings story? It felt as through the world was slipping into an eternal winter until two very ordinary Hobbits bravely set out on a perilous journey to destroy the One Ring and overthrow Savron’s powerful grip of death over everyone. Frodo and Sam were just two ordinary little characters, but as the story develops, they tap into the depths of courage, ingenuity and a steadfastness that were only revealed through the trials that they faced.
So, what is this pandemic revealing in you? What does God want to re-new, re-set, re-ignite and re-claim through what seems to be an eternal winter? Ecclesiastes 11:4 reminds us that if we wait until everything is just right, we’ll never plant anything. ‘Those who watch and wait for favourable winds never plant, and those who watch and fret over every cloud never harvest.’ [The Voice Translation]
Are you waiting on favourable winds before you re-new, re-set, re-ignite and re-claim something that God is asking you to do?
What if Frodo and Sam waited until they gained enough courage to take on the Dark Lord Savron? What then? They would have let that shadowy, dark threat take over and they’d be thrown into an eternal winter forever never seeing spring ever again.
The world today seems like it is slipping more and more into an eternal winter, but you have a seed of a thought, an idea that is just waiting to burst out and blossom. Someone is waiting on you to be brave enough to do something about that idea you’ve been holding off on. People need you to show them that spring is coming. You’re more powerful than you know, dear friend and maybe this is the right time to step into new opportunities. Proverbs 18:16 says, ‘The right gift at the right time can open up new opportunities and gains access to influential people.’ We may feel like the Hobbits who were very ordinary little characters. However, God can use your untapped potential that is just waiting to spring forth into something that can overthrow the power of the enemy. And maybe, just maybe it will only come through this trail that we are all facing. Maybe like the fire that forged the Ring, we too need to go through the fiery furnace, so it gets rid of the dross that we’ve been clinging onto and reveal the gold that is inside of us.
Romans 8:11 is like good potting compost for your seed of purpose to grow in. It says, ‘If the Spirit of the One who resurrected Jesus from the dead lives inside of you, then you can be sure that He who raised Him will cast the light of life into your mortal bodies through the life-giving power of the Spirit residing in you.’ This power-packed verse gives you all the nutrients you’ll need to re-new, re-set, re-ignite that seed that’s been lying dormant within you. It’s time to resurrect and cast some light into people’s eternal winter and show them what you’re made of. God wants to re-claim His position in your life. So, make Him your number one focus and watch God use your ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary!
