This year, I wore a jacket on Easter Sunday. I wore it because I like jackets...I am most comfortable and confident wearing them. Even though it is getting warmer in Jacksonville, I like to continue wearing jackets as a way of somewhat fooling myself that it is still cool enough for them.
So I was ready and excited to sport my jacket...until 9am. It was so hot by that point that I almost regretted my decision. The only thing that kept my jacket on was, again, the fact that I felt comfortable and confident wearing it. Even though I was overheated most of the morning, I refused to take it off (except for the few moments I spent teaching the Bible to the kids). I was bound and determined to keep that jacket on and I was gonna love my life in the process.
The older I get, the less I enjoy the warm weather. I have fallen in love with colder temperatures. I do not want the season to change yet. So I'll keep wearing my jackets and ruining my undershirts from the sweat stains in the process. Let me say it again...I AM NOT READY FOR THE SEASONS TO CHANGE.
In John 20, Mary encounters the risen Jesus after a couple of days of unimaginable torment. She watched Him die, and now she sees Him again. Hope which was lost is now standing in front of her. It would be a normal reaction to want to reach out and touch Him. And His response to her is, "Do not cling to Me..." I wonder if Jesus is saying to her in effect, "the seasons are changing Mary. You can no longer interact with me the way you used to...but trust Me, this new way will be even better."
The only thing worse than wearing a jacket in 80 degree weather is realizing that I have convinced myself that it is okay. Somehow, I believe inside my head that it is okay to think it is still winter when it is the middle of spring. If only this were the only area of my life where I have a hard time transitioning into a new season. I so desperately want to cling to the temperatures that I am most comfortable with. But the seasons do not wait for me when it comes to changing. They do not wait for anyone...
With the Resurrection of Jesus Christ comes this reality...EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE. It is true that wherever the Spirit of Jesus is, bondage must give way to freedom, brokenness must submit to wholeness, sin is overcome by love and grace, and death is swallowed up by new life. Crazy to think that we would hold on to the old way of relating to God and living our lives. But we do. We blame the seasons for changing or worse, God for allowing the seasons to change. But still, the seasons change...whether we like it or not.
This is true for me...the season has changed. And I mean past tense. It changed a while ago, and I need the courage to take off the jacket of false comfort and fake confidence. Things will be better if I submit...not to the season, but to the God of the seasons. What about you? Are you paying attention to the season you are in or hoping that sweaty jackets will become the trend?
It is going to be 86 degrees in Jacksonville on Easter Monday. My jacket is irrelevant.
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