Tis Spring! It’s not my favorite season, but I welcome it with open, pollen filled arms. Yes, the only season that I hold love and dislike in close community. I appreciate and welcome the songs of the birds, the blooming of flowers and warmness of days, but I detest the itchy, watery eyes and everything covered in yellowish-green, spurring coughing and congestion. Growing up in Chicago, spring meant us playing outside minus the winter coat. It was magnificent! One of the games I loved in addition to double dutch and kickball was hopscotch. It didn’t require one to be super athletic, but it did require concentration, balance, tenacity, trust and hope – much like this season.
Perhaps you may feel as though you are experiencing a season that is allergic to greatness. Or each time, you’ve got things settled, life requires that you pivot in an attempt to land softly in another situation. Maybe you even feel like Charlie Brown, and you’ve got a rock again, or when you finally secure the perfect rock, your toss doesn’t count. Each scenario akin to hopscotch – because although I loved it, the feeling wasn’t always reciprocal. It took me a long time to locate the perfect rock, that stood out and held a substantial amount of weight to travel. Others seemingly were able to identify their rock with little effort. When my turn would emerge, my perfect rock didn’t align with the dreams in my head and I often lost a turn, while others progressed. When I got in the game, I learned that my ability to balance on one foot was challenged, and to take advantage of the spaces by which I could plant both feet on the ground. No matter how difficult the game, the trauma was forgotten when I could reach the pinnacle of the hopscotch experience and bellow “Sky Blue!” It meant the hard journey was worth the hardness. II Timothy 2:3 affirms, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” As opposed to focusing on the hardship, let’s collectively concentrate on the endurance. The reason I kept trying at hopscotch was that at the end, like those that hopped before me, I would be endorsed, expected, endured to yell at the top of my lungs, “Sky Blue!”
Are you in need of victory? Tired of balancing the imbalanced? Sick of getting a rock as opposed to a treat? Feeling as though you are constantly out of bounds, or loosing a turn, while everyone else is moving without seemingly any restriction? We don’t have to wait until we exhaustedly arrive at the pinnacle of the diagram to yell Sky Blue! We have that access along the journey through Jesus! For any obstacle we encounter, we can bellow Jesus at the top of our lungs, assured that our victory isn’t only synonymous with our physical presence, but our soul stability in the Creator wherever we find ourselves. In this season, in any season, we cannot afford to miss our opportunity to call upon the name of Lord for our help, for our sustainability, for our weakness, for our strength. Join me in screaming unto our Sky Blue Jesus!
