I don’t know how you are when you have time to sit down and read. For myself I so seldom have time for leisure reading anymore that my first thought is ahhh, finally, some time to read; the next thing I think is, hmm… what shall I read this time? For me, a title at the top of a page or in the index of a medical journal often  helps me to decide if I should skip, skim, or read thoroughly. Now, you may ask, what does that have to do with anything? Well, its rather simple actually… all of that rambling was just to let you know that I am about to comment on the title of this blog…

Spring… I wonder what the word brings to your mind? I had several different thoughts almost immediately. I thought of a coiled piece of metal that is rather bouncy, you know, the thing they put under  vehicles and in pens. I also thought about a clear, small, cold, babbling brook coming our of a rock somewhere on a hillside, and, of course, I also considered the time of year when all of the dead winter plants seem bursting with new life. Just for fun, I went to www.dictionary.com and typed in the word “spring”. To my surprise, there were 45 definitions listed. So, if you are curious, now is your chance to go find out how all the word spring may be used!

I don’t know if you are like a fish nibbling at a worm yet or not. I have tried to make you at least a little curious, curious enough to take the bite and read the rest of what I am writing here. Yes, I actually would do something like that, something like try to get your attention so you want to finish reading. So, what did I actually mean by the title? I meant that it is almost spring here. Yes, in fact, time change has already occurred. I can never keep track of when it is regular time and when it is Daylight Savings Time, but I do know that in the Spring we SPRING forward. I looked at the calender, and I guess officially spring does not start until March 21st this year, and that is just around the corner. Anyway, the grass is turning green, and robins are out and about, and some days even are feeling a bit like spring!

Actually, I was thinking about how long it has been since I updated this blog. And I was thinking that Winter has flown by. And I realized that Spring was almost here. And now I wonder, what have I done this winter that will count for eternity? Better yet, what is my goal for this spring? Am I just aimlessly going through life drifting wherever the winds blow me? Or do I have a goal in mind, my eyes on a target; am I standing at the wheel, plotting a course, standing strait and tall in the storm, going forward, upward, higher, onward? Its so easy for me to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of business and forget that “without a vision the people perish”. I am becoming increasingly convinced that the most sure way of ending up in the middle of nowhere having compromised so much that we hardly stand for anything at all is to lack a vision and just try to maintain what we have. I believe that the Lord Jesus calls his children to always be pressing on, His Church is to be an ever increasing Kingdom which will have no end!

And if someone is reading this blog, and you are not one of Christ’s disciples, spring has a message for you too. Spring; I mentioned that it brings memories of dead things becoming alive. Have you ever stopped to realize that you too are dead apart from the life of Christ? I wonder, what is your objection to Christ. Surely it is not that in mercy He would take you from death into marvelous light! Surely it is not that you can find a fault in Him! Surely you will be without excuse and your own wickedness will be made manifest when you stand before Him condemned for rejecting the only source of life.

So, the next time you see a pen spring, or walk in the woods past some water dripping out of a rock, or even as you watch the winter give way to spring, the dead brown plants turn green and bloom, and when you realize that time is flying by, then – then remember Christ, remember new life, remember that indeed Christ’s Kingdom will grow and conquer!