Appointed Times

“Mom, I can’t breathe in this country,” I complained as what once was sheen on my face now began to bead up and become not a glow but sheer sweat. “This is disgusting, it’s not even August and I can’t breathe.” Now, before you go all Varsity Coach on me and tell me to suck it up, have some sympathy, people. I haven’t been in America for summer in five years time (Did you just sing that in your head like I did? Good because that’s part of a song; I realize that. For those who are out of the musical loop, Five Years Time by Noah and the Whale. Go. Now.) Anyways, I have escaped the heat of Hades in America by venturing to the Emerald Isle (Again, for those of you outside of the humanity and general knowledge loop, that’s Ireland). What do you need to make an isle the color of emerald?

Rain. Precipitation. Downpour. Showers. Mizzle. Rainfall. Sprinkle. Rainwater. And oh yes, RAIN.

That is what I am used to; enduring wet socks, everlasting prune fingers, lasting bad hair days, and consistently feeling your jeans just are not quite dry. I suppose I never realized how close rain and I have become over the past several years of our relationship. He was around so much I began to not notice his cloud of presence in my life during the months of June through August. That’s until his brother Sunshine and I started hanging out this year. His personality is far dissimilar than Rain’s.

“Different is not bad, different is just…different.” –Paul Bowman

So this got me brooding. If I have met the family of rain, sunshine, sleet, humid, chilly, snow, and breezy, I must dwell deeper on their parents: Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring. Ah yes, the seasons. Seasons are a curious thing, wouldn’t you agree? Why do we have them? Why did God decide to create seasons? I came to the conclusion that God is a God of pictures. He is a genius and realizes that we are not. Seasons are much more than just seasons. So, what did I do? I took Google by the hand of course and asked him to lead me into the realms and depths of each season.

I suppose we should begin with the season that is most on my mind, or should I say the one that is causing this sheen all over my face which no makeup can cure; her name is Summer. Summer is a bit snooty if you ask me. She thinks she is better than everyone else. Just because you are hot, involve many people’s birthdays, have 4th of July and there is no school when you’re here doesn’t make you better, Summer. Summer can have moments where she shocks you though. Moments when she is not even trying and takes your mouth full of air right out of you. Sunsets, camping, laughter, swimming, baseball games, and perfect nights when you don’t need a jacket… That’s what we love about you Summer. Summer’s sister Winter is the complete opposite.

Winter. I adore winter. She is way prettier than she gives herself credit. Everyone underestimates and is so rude to Winter. Calm down everyone, Winter is just being herself. If I’m being honest with you, Winter….you just don’t know when to leave. You overstay your welcome quite often. I’m sorry, I didn’t know how to tell you, but that’s why people here don’t like you as much as I do. You have to take a hint and know when to leave. You’re amazing though. Sledding, snowball fights, Jack Frost, Christmas, and that noise snow makes when your boots crinkle over it…. That’s what we love about you Winter. Winter is closest with her dear sister, Autumn.

Ah yes, Autumn. Autumn really should model, she is gorgeous. Her personality is contagious. I mean seriously, what bad things could you possibly say about Autumn? She will send chills through your veins at what she does. The maroons, oranges, and mustard yellows the burst forth from her heart is simply irresistible. She is not as dramatic as her sisters Summer and Winter. Raking leaves, Thanksgiving, football, harvest and breath taking colors…. That’s what we love about Autumn. Last but not least, Spring.

Spring’s name does her justice. She literally has so much LIFE pulsing through her. She’s vivacious, feisty, and knows how to bring the best out of everything. She has a way of seeing what is deep down inside things that you think has died and breathing life back into it. Spring…only one problem. Here in Colorado, we question if you’re ever going to show up. You’re always late to the party, Spring. Winter doesn’t know when to leave and you don’t know when to show up. All is forgiven once you do arrive though. Bumble bees, flowers, picnics, humming birds and vibrancy… That’s what we love about you Spring.

Well this has been cute, but it’s time to get down to business friends. WHY? Seasons, why do you exist? For cute moments like these, or for God to remind us; to remind me that there are physical, tangible season you can see… but there are also season deep within your spirit and heart. And you…YOU know exactly what I’m talking about.

Death, life, uprooted, planted tears, laughter, sunshine, darkness. In Genesis when God creates the seasons the Hebrew word for season is the same as the phrase, “appointed time”. We talk about the “seasons” of our own lives; I like “appointed times” better.

Did you know that a tree when it is first planted needs perfect conditions to grow? Google explained to me all about how the first year of a tree and going through the different seasons is crucial. There is a watering pattern for a baby tree that you have to keep up for the first YEAR…because it is most susceptible to attack….wow. Anyone else feeling a strong correlation here?

Also that baby tree’s first summer is pivotal. The baby tree won’t be a baby tree anymore at the end of an ideal summer. It’s tricky though; a fantastic summer will either ruin or flourish a baby tree. If it doesn’t get enough (living) water the tree can wither and dry up in a few days, oh but if a tree does get water it will grow up to 4 times its original size! What has been a “summer” in your life? A time of almost incubation where your growth rate was rapid, but only because the circumstances where so extreme. I wonder if a tree feels sometimes like we do in those summer seasons….that at any moment that blazing sun will take our life. That tree will say in the heat of summer, “Mom, I can’t breathe.”
Intense conditions produces intense growth.

Autumn is a time of change, preparation, harvest, and beauty. As the tree stops producing chlorophyll (what makes leaves green) the leaves change colors and begins to fall off the branches. Trees also get little or no water during this season. If the leaves remained, water would escape as water vapor through the tiny pores in the leaves. This way the tree can conserve water and stay alive. I wonder if a tree ever cries when it watches its stunning leaves that it has worked so hard on all year fall to the ground dead. Those leaves which were once glorious and colorful are being raked up to be shoved into black trash bags/ leaf body bags. I wonder if the tree shouts at God in those moments, “Those are mine! Don’t take them from me!” If that tree kept its leaves the second Jack Frost came knocking the tree would die. God takes the leaves from the tree not because he is evil, but because he knows winter is coming and that tree will die if it clings to its leaves. What has God stripped you of this year? What has God “taken” from you? What are the “leaves” in your life that you can’t seem to let go of? In my life I am in autumn right now… watching my beautiful leaves fall to the ground as I mourn their departure. Autumn is also the best time of the year to prune a tree. If the branches are not needed all they will do is steal nutrients from where the tree needs it most. How gracious is the Lord to eliminate the unnecessary junk in our lives. Whether we or the tree likes it or not those leaves are going to be taken away because He loves us and is not going to watch us kill ourselves in the winter, just because we wanted to cling to our leaves.

Buckle up tree, because its winter. Winter may look lifeless, desolate, and bleak…but miracles happen in winter. Cessation of active growth, formation of terminal buds, formation of abscission layers in leaves, development of cold resistance, development of winter rest….miracles people. A tree may look dormant but cell division, respiration, enzymes, and preparation for the buds is all going on during this season. I wonder if a tree is ever shocked by the first snow. I wonder if trees, like people, ever get season depression. Winter is long in Colorado and sometimes you wonder if sunshine still exists or was just a figment of your imagination. Winter doesn’t mean to, but it can slaughter life if a tree is not ready. How good is God that autumn is a time to get a tree ready for winter. What has been a winter in your life; a time where trouble came blowing in with no mercy… a time when you wondered if the Sun was only a dream from long ago. In what ways did God prepare you for that season? Are you in the winter now and questioning if you’re even still alive? How striking that the most brutal and ruthless season is followed by spring.

Spring has sprung. I hate that trite saying, but it’s true. Spring cannot hide from us. She comes out and has us captivated by her beauty. Trees and plants blossom in spring and their colors and fragrance is intoxicating. Those buds and bulbs that felt so lifeless in winter are now bursting forth and enchanting all of creation. The cherry tree is unsightly in the winter only to enamor us with her beauty in spring. What once was dead is now alive again. God will give you back your leaves and blossoms and you will worship him more for it. You can tell when someone is going through their spring in life. When someone is radiant and flourishing with Christ. Like a mother after the labor of childbirth who is most beautiful, so are we in the spring after the winter.

“Appointed times” are not just in creation; they are in you. May you take heart if you are in the winter, surrender your leaves in the fall, trust that you will grow and not wither in the summer, and burst forth His brilliance in the spring.

Theologians Unite

My friend Rachael D. sent this to me awhile back, and I recently found it again. I really enjoyed it so I figured I would share. It's short, but creative and well done.

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

A Tale of 2 Stories

The dust on the dirt road was kicked up from the truck driving by and made me cough. I rolled up my window, but then changed my mind and reversed my action. It was too hot to keep it up seeing as my magnificent car, Dustin, doesn’t offer me the luxury of air conditioning. No, no, my air is never conditioned, just straight up. Maybe one day I will enjoy this indulgence, but today was not that day. My destination was Falcon, Colorado. Falcon is the place where a family and a friend that are very dear to me rest their heads at night and call home…so, Falcon, I was coming for you.

I pulled into the rock covered drive way, turned off my engine, and pulled up my obnoxious E-brake. I was welcomed by Melodie with a smile and embrace, and three dogs trying to lick my scab on my knee….gross, but true. We proceeded up the stairs and were greeted by Stephanie. She was being her usual, fabulous self and was sewing a beautiful apron. Mel and I made lunch and everything felt peaceful.

Now, if you put Melodie, Stephanie and I in a room alone one of three things will happen. 1.) Giggles galore. 2.) Conversations of great magnitude and depth. 3.) Silence because we just finished a conversation of great magnitude and depth and need to think about it. It usually follows that order. I could write about many things we discussed. I could write about how often humanity gets lost in miscommunications. I could entertain you with a witty writing of the Church vs. the church. I could even unpack the simple truths of how often we don’t feel worthy, but those are not what made me STOP.

Every so often someone will say something that makes you STOP. Thoughts are sometimes like ear plugs, it goes in and everything seems to fall silent. The world around you continues, but you are brewing in your own thoughts. Frozen. Soundless. The conversation had turned to an instance that Mel was recalling and telling me to what conclusion she had arrived. I won’t give all the details, but Mel was simply talking about a camera and said something... something that hit me. It felt like being clothes lined; one second you are running and then next thing you know you're on the ground writhing in pain and trying to decipher what just happened.

“I was so excited about it at first, and now…now it’s not enough for me.”

Shoes. Car. Phone. Guitar. Books. Those where the things that instantly flashed before me. Excited about them at first…then not enough. My thoughts then decided to take a dark turn. As if my thoughts were all piled in a car and then saw a dark, abandoned alley and made a sudden jerk to see what evils may lurk down such a passage.

Friendships. Ministry. Churches. Romantic relationships. Traveling. The Word. Prayer. And to my shame, Christ himself flashed into my mind. Excited is often swept away by the wind of not enough. What starts off as a passionate, infatuated relationship with Christ often finds itself running into the wall of apathy and dissatisfaction. Next thing we know this faith is swept away by a strong gust of wind, and we desperately try to grab hold of it again. Most of us have seen somone who loses a paper or money in the wind and then tries to recapture it and rarely does it turn out well. They must either wait for the wind to die down or look like a fool who is literally chasing after the wind.

I forget so often how broken I was….how shattered and hopeless I was before Christ. Before He came, I was a stranger even to myself. I had no idea who I was so I tried out different facades. The majority of my middle school and high school career was a massive masquerade. Then Jesus grabbed a hold of my heart and literally TOLD me who I was, and began to change me to that person, and he still is. Yet, now… I have so easily forgotten to cherish my forgiveness and my identity in Christ. So I’m begging for God to allow me to remember. I’m forgiven, clean, and loved by Christ.

“If we forget then worship is damaged, joy is damaged, pleasure is damaged, the reflection of the perfect reality of Christ is damaged.” –Matt Chandler

Do you believe that He is enough for you? Were you excited about Him and all of this at first and now He is simply not seeming good enough? Are you a naturally inconsistent person, so even your relationship with God is affected, but your excuse is, That’s just how I am, inconsistent. What does a life drastically changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ look like for you?

Jeremy (the Younglife director for Tri-Lakes) always says to us as youth leaders, “You should have 2 stories constantly in your back pocket. One about what you are seeing God do in a specific young person’s life. Two something that you are seeing God do in your life.” The first time he said that I thought to myself fair enough, but then he followed it up with, “And those stories should change every week…” He said that the point is that God is a God who is constantly moving in the lives of youth and you, and your job is to simply ask him to open your eyes to that. Awareness is key. He tells us we never have to try to generate something, but merely get caught up in what God is already doing; like getting caught in the current of the ocean. The ocean is too powerful to try to create your own current. All you have to do is relax, trust the ocean and you will be swept away by something more magnificent, powerful, vast, difficult, and stunning than you could ever imagine.

What are your stories this week? Are you so involved with others you don’t have a story for yourself? Maybe you are so encased by yourself you haven no idea what God is doing in others. Where is the tide sweeping in your life? May you be swept away by the currents of Yahweh.