It is snowing outside my window and there is a large doe sitting under a snowy pine tree in our backyard. Now I know it is the second day of Spring but I am having a hard time believing it. Last week I was in the hot, hot sun in Palm Springs, walking in the desert at Joshua Tree National Park, admiring the desert flowers and enjoying the hot tub by night. There was some lounging by the side of the pool, reading and basking in friendship and in the sun. But today Sue and I headed out into snow that had just started falling. Quickly, the wind started to pick up and swirl and as we reached the top of the street, we saw other crazy runners heading off in a northern direction talking and running. I couldn’t help but notice that two of those runners were in shorts. Crazy, cove runners. Sue and I headed on another half mile in that direction until we could literally see no more- snow was hitting our eyes and we had to keep blinking and then pretty soon even my eyes wouldn’t open and all visibility was gone. We turned around and walked back up the hill wondering what had happened to Spring. And yet, there is so much to be learned from running in the swirling wind that can apply to life such as when you are struggling you sometimes have to turn the other way and take a different course, you’re forced to really. You can go no further and must go another way. Sometimes, when things are difficult you just have to keep you head up and trudge on knowing that better times are coming.
And I so relate that to anything hard I’ve had to deal with in life. You have to trudge forward and find a way to keep your spirits up despite the anguish going on inside you. Over and over I realize and understand that I can’t do it alone. That all these burdens are too heavy for just me to bear and so I hand them over to Christ. And sometimes, other people help to bear them. And this always amazes me because there are those people who have a sense that you need their help and then send an e-mail or write a letter or somehow touch you when you’re down. Also, the way you react to a trial has a large impact on how you will deal with that trial but also how you will deal with trials in the future. And the last thing we should ever do is to compare our trials with another. We simply do not have enough information to make that call.
I hate to say this but I am grateful for my trials because they have taught me so much. But it seems to me that we do need breaks of happiness in between them so we can get strong enough to take new ones on.
Enjoying the desert with our dear friends, Kelly and Laurie Burt in Palm Springs
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