When 70 Feels Like 50
That title could mean so many things, couldn't it? Maybe it is referring to temperature. Maybe it's referring to age. Maybe it's referring to time spent with someone you love.
It's A.
I find it intriguing -- every year -- as the seasons change that the temperature that makes me want tank tops and sandals in April makes me reach for a sweater in September. In April, we're coming out of months of cold, wet, dreary, unpleasant Winter. All we want is sunshine and warmth, so at the first rise of the mercury, we reach for turquoise T-shirts and fun flip flops.
But as the kids return to school and we pack away the bathing suits, the mercury drops from the 80s and 90s down to 70. The same temperature that made us strip in April makes us grab a sweater and put on a pair of socks now. We're coming down off unbearable heat; we want relief.
I could write a blog about perspective, but I won't.
I want to draw your attention to the facts: it is 70* today. It may go as high as 74*. We have an instrument which can tell us accurately what the outside temperature is. Not how it feels. Not what it makes me want to do. What it IS.
The world in which we live demands my feelings be respected and pains be taken to make sure I am not offended. The world tells us there is not right and wrong. I can choose my own truth. You do you, they say, and let me worry about me.
It's currently 70* but I am wearing jogging pants and fuzzy socks. Because that is what I feel. That doesn't negate the fact that the thermometer reads 70*.
There is a right and wrong. There is only one truth. Letting you do you isn't always the loving response.
The Bible is that instrument in our lives that tells it like it is. The Bible is always true, always relevant, always the breath of God to fill us.
The Bible points us to God and corrects us when we're wrong. 2 Timothy 3:16-17
The Bible gives guidance when we don't know the way. Psalm 119:105
Following the words of the Bible will create in us godly, pure lives. Psalm 119:9
The Bible tells us who God is, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is. John 20:30-31 reveal this purpose of Scripture, but the revelation of God is throughout and in every word.
The Bible gives spiritual sustenance and the ability to overcome temptation, as Jesus did in Matthew 4:4.
The Bible helps us cut through the lies and distractions of this present age, so that we will not be swept away. Hebrews 4:12
It may feel like fuzzy sock weather, but it is 70* and six months from now, 70* will feel pretty darn good. The thermometer tells me there is actual truth when it comes to temperature. The Bible tells me there is actual truth in the world.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:9-14
