Today I am enjoying Spring in Oklahoma. Trees have covered their naked limbs with leaves, roses are blooming, and my peach tree has dropped its petals to replace them with infant fruit. Spring is much more subtle in Florida, where I spend most of my time, but those of us who live there are able to detect the small changes. Sometimes it is just a smell in the air.
In the Christian life we also have seasons, we have summers when the livin’ is easy and life with God is good. There is fall when our hearts and love for the Lord seem to cool, and winter when He seems far away. The most important spiritual seasons are the spiritual springs because they are the times of growth and change. Sometimes you may experience a northern spring when everything changes quickly. You suddenly become aware of God’s love, your desire to know and worship him becomes intense, and you begin to produce the fruit of the Spirit. In these times there is a stark contrast between the person you were and the person you are becoming. At other times, you may experience a southern spring. At these times there is growth, but it is not as perceptible and pronounced.
It seems to me that the intensity of our spiritual springs will be determined by the severity of our spiritual winters. In Luke 7, Jesus attended a dinner party at the home of a Pharisee named Simon. While they were eating, a woman made a scene by coming into the house, pouring perfume on Jesus’ feet, and then washing them off with her hair. Simon was shocked by this behavior and could not understand why Jesus would allow it.
Jesus answered Simon’s questions by telling a story:
“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?” (Luke 7:41-42)
The obvious answer to Jesus’ question is that the person who owed the most would love the most. We are not told what became of either Simon or the woman, but we do know that Jesus’ story was about them. Simon was the person who owed only fifty denarii and the woman was the person who owed five hundred. Another way to look at this story is that the woman had been through a severe spiritual winter, so her spiritual spring was quite dramatic. Simon, who had lived a strict religious life, would come to Christ in a less dramatic way.
For us the question is not how bitter our winter or how sensational our spring, but do we show growth. Am I growing new leaves? Am I producing fruit? What spiritual season are you in today? What is the health of your soul?