As Surely As Summer Follows Spring

Last Sunday was a pretty nice day.  It got up around seventy degrees, maybe even a little higher than that.  There was some wind, as there almost always is, but not a terrible wind.  All in all, a very nice day.  

Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a day like that since, and we’re not likely to for a while yet.  The forecast is that it won’t even get back to sixty until the second of May.  We’re not supposed to see seventy again for over a week.

I say “unfortunately”.  Maybe you don’t agree.  Maybe you think it’s fortunate.  But summer is my favorite time of year.  I love the warm weather.  And about now is when I start to get really impatient for it to come.  I’m tired of wearing sweaters and jackets.  I mean, they help hide my stomach a little, but still, I’m tired of them.  I want to be able to walk outside in shirt sleeves and not get cold.  I want to be able to ride my bike around town and work up a sweat.  I want summer.

Now, I am confident that summer will come, eventually.  But I want it now.  And I can’t have it now.  So, I have to wait.

That’s sometimes how it works when we pray.  We know what we want God to do and we ask God to do it.  And it doesn’t happen.  But that doesn’t mean it’s never going to happen.  It might not, but it might.  Sometimes God is going to do what we ask, but God is going to do it in God’s way and at God’s time.  And we have to wait.

It’s the waiting that’s the hard part.  But that’s yet another reason that I’ve asked people to pray for us to open our hearts and open our souls to God’s Holy Spirit.  It’s why I’ve asked people to pray that we will submit ourselves to God’s will.  If we allow ourselves to be led by God’s Holy Spirit, and if we submit ourselves to God’s will, we can be confident that God is always going to do the right thing.  God may not do exactly what I want God to do.  God may not do it exactly when I want God to do it.  But just as surely as summer follows spring, we can be confident that God will do what should be done and what needs to be done.  We can always be confident that God will what is right.

So, I will try to be patient and wait for summer.  And when there are other things that I’m praying about, I will be try to be patient and wait for God to do what’s right.  I’ll be confident that God will do what’s right, in God’s way and at God’s time.  And I’ll be confident that God’s way and God’s time are always better than my way and my time.