January stands gray and cold. The days stretch long in Michigan with darkness falling in late afternoon.
Sometimes my mood travels right along with the pattern of the seasons.
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.
Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried about long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8
I want to be one of these trees.
In the heat of difficultly, challenges, and the gray discouragement of life… I don’t want to be bothered.
In the long of months of dry, sad, lonely, worry… I don’t want to be bothered.
I want to remember God is my Hope and my Confidence.
That hope is an anchor that tethers me to life through the cold and gray days.
When I sit in a room, I usually pick one object to focus on. It grounds me to that place in time. I feel more secure in the moment I am in and this stills some of my anxiety. (I know I am so weird.) When I write at home, I always make sure to be close to a window. I focus on whatever tree I can see, they are secure because their roots run deep. I am drawn to their strength. What holds them upright are the roots that you cannot even see.
The roots grow where you can’t see them…
Those are those quiet moments in our own lives, were we do things purely out of love and obedience to Christ that no one else will ever see or know. These are the moments we get up from the ground and choose to live in hope and confidence, not in the dark and gray.
Reach Deep.
About Proximity 