…We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun,
But the wine and the song,
like the seasons, have all gone…
Terry Jacks – Seasons in the sun
Everyone has “That Summer” where everything was perfect. The sky was the deepest blue, the air was clear, the grass had the softness to it and everything seemed to be perfect. No health issues, no cash in-flows restrictions, no legal troubles and all your loved ones were around you.
There are many examples of last summer in the bible. Egypt had their best summer before Moses straddled back into town. Sodom and Gomorrah had their best summer right before Lot left with God’s angels. The world around Noah was living the high life before the flood came and swept them away.
Each of the three cases the wicked had their time in the sun and the righteous were warned and scooted out of harm’s way. The wicked are enjoying their time right now because there won’t be wine, song and fun times if they die in a wicked state. Separation from Jesus and the burning lake of fire will be the result of their pleasure minded lifestyle while on earth.
The book of Ecclesiastes speaks about a season:
1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace
ESV Ecc3:1-8
Even if one doesn’t have a perfect summer to reflect on they have a summer that was special. 2014 was “that summer” for me.
We were blessed to travel to Branson Missouri for a church gathering, Vermont for a family reunion and Norway for a wedding and finally Ireland to walk the path of my ancestors. Ebola wasn’t pressing in the news and no other screw was being tighten on the family.
That summer will never come again. As summer came to a close the invasion of the southern boarder began with total Washington DC approval. The horde stampeded across into the border states and the US citizens began contracting the diseases that they were bringing up from their host country: super drug resistant TB, dengue fever, Marburg fever, smallpox, polio, hepatitis A B & C, and leprosy to name a few.
Ebola popped up in the news and began wiping out people in West Africa all the while the southern boarder remained open and flights continued and passengers from Ebola stricken countries were allowed in. Infected doctors and nurses were flown back to the states even though there are first class hospitals in Africa. Thomas Duncan became the first confirmed Ebola case in the US after flying over from Liberia. He died and in the process infected others. The borders and the flights remained open. News that the US will be flying in non-citizens infected with Ebola into the US for treatment is now in the news.
I have had an inner feeling for many months that change is coming. I don’t know where or when or by what method but I believe a clue came in a dream. Only rarely do I ever remember a dream so a few weeks ago I woke up with a dream on my thoughts.
I was on a piece of land that I owned (not in the real world but in the dream world). It was covered with tree covered rolling hills of good grass. I became annoyed that construction interrupted the serenity of the land. That construction was laying out a highway just beyond some trees off in distance. The Highway was 47. I pondered what this meant when I awoke and a few hours later it clicked that maybe the Highway signified this year since I am 47.
A few days later my wife woke up and she mentioned she was dreaming that we were all in a car going fast.
Were both dreams related? I believe they were.
It’s my thoughts that this year will be a year of change, year of disruptions and it’ll involve the entire family and when it happens it’ll happen quickly.
Jesus opens and closes doors and looking back in my life I can see different doors close and other doors open as I reached certain stages in my life. It seemed that I would stay at a spot until I learned a skill that would be needed in the future. The next door that I went thru I used all the previous abilities.
To me there were 2 phases in growth. First was worldly were I was planted in good financial soil where I could have spare time for the 2nd and most important phase: spiritual growth.
God is focused on the spiritual growth of a person.
Each time the time came for a door to be closed I would sense a finality rushing towards me. I felt a closure of that stage of life whether it was:
- Graduation from school and not having a job or where I was going to live
- Knowing my work area was being sold off to another company and not knowing what would happen to me
- Having to train India to replace my group’s function and see the group get cut down to 2 persons.
I’m now having that same feeling come over me that a change is coming. That change will impact my work and it’ll impact my family.
What change? I don’t know. When? I don’t know. I do know that in the previous shifts it all worked out to benefit my spiritual state as Romans 8:28 states:
ESV Rm8:28And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair…
A tale of two cities