Walking through the Seasons of Life

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I really enjoy my morning walk with my dog Fiver.  We don’t get out too early, but normally hit the trail around 9:30 each day.  I get up around 7:15, get some coffee brewing and then head into my study for my morning Bible time.  Following that, I feed the pooch and head to the shower.  By then I usually feel ready to take on the world and Fiver and I head out the front door.

But there definitely are times… like today… where I have to do a little extra self-encouragement to want to step out into the overcast and cold morning on the other side of my kitchen windows!  Fiver does a real good job at helping to convince me though, as he knows our daily routine and stands, bounces up and down and talks to me from the bedroom while I shower, shave and dress!  Once outside… I NEVER regret the decision to take the walk!

As Fiver tries his best to control his enthusiasm while I attempt to secure his harness on him, I always ask the Lord for His protection on our walk and thank Him for the beauty of His creation that He wants to highlight for us that day.  Well, today was no different than any other day, as I was swept away by the green lawns on the golf course next door that seemed to be adored with twinkling Christmas lights after yesterday’s rain.

We follow the same route most everyday along the city golf course, through the neighborhood park and up the berm to the large drainage pond that serves multiple neighborhoods and then reverse our tracks on the way back home… and in-between, Fiver does a lot of sniffing and attracts the attention of almost every golfer we pass, as I take in the sights of everything around us.

It is a little funny to me in that I normally go out of my way to greet my neighbors but tend to get much more regular conversation from the many golfers we either make a first-time acquaintance with (“Oh!  What a beautiful dog you have… I joke that Fiver is my “Chick Magnet” but the women aren’t interested in me… just the dog!), or the mostly guys we see on their regularly scheduled golf days!

On today’s return hike, I was captivated by the beautiful orange, red, purple and green leaves on the trees that line the path on the golf course side of the fence and our neighborhood’s community green space behind the houses whose backyards face the golf course.  (Our sub-division is aptly named: “Fairway Crossing.”)

As I stopped to take a few pictures, I thought about how much the scenes on our daily walk change throughout the four seasons.  In the fall, like right now, the leaves on the trees are strutting their colors as the colder weather causes them to produce less chlorophyll and allow the other pigments behind the green to prevail.  The lawns out here also begin their trip into dormancy as the leaves fall and the squirrels make their last-minute attempts to gather every last nut they can, before winter sets in.

In the winter we bundle up for our morning walks as the temperatures drop and the air becomes cold and crisp!  And occasionally we here in Oklahoma get a little bit of snow that covers the landscape in a beautiful blanket of white fluff.  Then in Spring the signs of new life begin to pop up and I switch back to my hiking shorts with the lawns slowly turning green again, buds forming on the trees and the first blooms of the new year arriving. 

And then there’s summer… well… let’s just say that they don’t call this area of Oklahoma “Green Country” for nothing!  I am always surprised each morning when I step out in my normal summer attire of a thin golf shirt and the previously mentioned shorts and walk over to the golf course, and take in the nicely manicured acres of green almost as far as the eye can see!

As my mind wandered on all these thoughts during our walk today, I also got to thinking of the pathways that God’s leads us on as we walk through the various seasons of our lives.  Psalm 23:2-3 tells us,

“He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss.  That’s where he restores and revives my life. He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honor to his name.” 

                                                                                                        (TPT) 

This particular portion of this psalm always reminds of some of my favorite spots within my favorite park in the California State Park system that Piper and I and our family frequently enjoyed from the summer of 1976 to the summer of 2005.  I can picture the areas under the tall pines, the cool, calm and peaceful lakes, brooks and streams, the green meadow and the miles of trails up and down the mountains in the park and neighboring Plumas National Forest of northeastern California.

I can’t tell you how many times over the years when some situation was putting undo pressure upon me, when I would recite from memory or from the pages of my many Bible translations, these all-familiar and loved scriptures and picture those special places that were and continue to be so very close to my heart. 

And EVERY TIME it never failed to give me a clear sense of God’s “luxurious love” touching my life, bringing me to His “oasis of peace” and “quiet brook of bliss,” which would serve to “restore and revive my life,” and set me on the “pathways to His pleasure,” as He led me “along in His footsteps of righteousness.”

WOW!  I can feel His peace and “luxurious love” just by reading what I just wrote!  You too can have that peace and sense of His overwhelming love in your life by simply yielding whatever concern or situation might be upsetting you today to Jesus.  The end of Psalm 23:3 tells us that He will do all this for us because it brings honor to His name. Paul also confirmed this by saying in Philippians 2:9-11 that:

“This is why God has given him an exceptional honor- the name honored above all other names- so that at the name of Jesus everyone (& everything) in heaven, on earth, and in the world below will kneel and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” (TPT) 

So why not just do it?  Yield whatever the difficulty is to Him, place the situation, the hurt or whatever the trouble may be under the name of Jesus and thereby allow Him to fill you with everything that Psalm 23:2-3 says is yours when you enter into the “Resting Place” of His “Luxurious Love.”

Don’t put it off… do it today!