Winter Musings 2

So this winter has seen up and down temperatures, snow and ice, snow and ice, rain, snow and ice. The flu has hit epidemic proportions across that nation, and the CDC missed on their vaccine recipe. Feeling good about it? You should, because all of this affords an opportunity to show your care for others! You can shovel walks for an elderly or differently-abled neighbor. You can offer to shop for someone who shouldn't be out and about. You can feed the birds and squirrels - they will show you their appreciation by devouring mounds of food! You can get down to some serious reconnecting with the family at home. Winter used to be a time when many things slowed down and we spent more time inside with family and friends. It was recognized for what it is - God's statement that we need to rest like the fields do, to recharge and heal up from the rigors of planting, harvesting and all the work around the farm!

You say you've never been on a farm and think that excuses you? Not so, for even in the city, with all the stuff that races along at break-neck speed, YOU need down time. Studies have told us for a long time that we have become a people who don't know the meaning of slow down and take care of yourself! As a pastor, I've had to work with men, especially but not exclusively, who pushed and pushed and pushed - until they found themselves hospitalized or institutionalized and dibilatated because they wouldn't allow themselves to rest and recover. We've all watched athletes whose careers were ended because they wouldn't allow themselves to heal from injuries that shouldn't have been serious.

And we all know "bosses" who think we ought to drive ourselves into the ground to make the company, and them, look good and prosper - while they are out wining and dining for the good of the company. Well, they need a different kind of rest, and it's called get out on the floor or into the streets and actually work like you demand your underlings work -- then give them and yourselves the time needed to rest and rejuvenate, so the company really will prosper - and you might even find you have skills and gifts that will benefit others.

Winter is down time, and I think we need to recapture that idea. Churches need to promote things that will get people relaxing, rejuvenating, resting. Teachers need to find ways to teach students that winter is time for the slow down activities and fun that come along for children - remember sledding and having snow-ball fights? Bosses need to start going out on a limb for workers and giving them time to enjoy the wonderful fun this season can offer, or to simply spend some quality - QUALITY - time with their families. We all need to rest and recover.

So, take a few minutes today, and think about your memories of the sled trip down the side of that little creek-bed that ended against the hidden log and your yards long slide down the hill on your face, or the snowperson you built on the front lawn in the central valley of California, or sledding down the monuments in the cemetery, or ice fishing for the first time with friends wetting 6 lines in a hole 10" across chopped in top layer of ice with a hatchet --

Enjoy, folks, because soon enough spring will be here with all the hurried, harried activity of springtime's burgeoning new life!

Peace!