These Dry Bones

The longer I'm around, the more I'm convinced that the same God who designed the seasons of life for our planet has done a similar work in our spiritual journey.

God knows if He leaves us in a season of testing too long, we'll crack. Just as we can't stand the extended prosperity of a season of blessing without becoming too self-enamored or prideful.

The seasons of life change as faithfully as the coming of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Of course, the dirty little secret is that I feel like I've been through a twelve-month calendar about ten times since I became pastor. The journey is fast and furious and the roller coaster has often caught me off-guard.

If I really wanted to scare you, I'd tell you how many things there are involved in being a pastor for which I was completely unprepared . . . no amount of experience, training, and even spiritual maturity can completely prepare a man for this job.

Of course, I think God loves it when we're forced to be dependent on Him. When we have to admit, virtually daily, that we're fish out of water. That we're incapable without His grace, mercy and wisdom. That there are huge expanses of our character and conduct that need to fall under His sharpening Spirit.

And I'm learning to love that margin . . . even when it's difficult and humbling.

Almost daily, as I've grown fatigued, or overwhelmed, or bewildered, I've been pushed back to a place where God's words in Ezekiel 37:4-5 make perfect sense to me:

"Then He said to me, 'Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, 'Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!'"

And, every season in which I've grown dry, He has been faithful to breath new life into me . . . and I know He always will. In fact, the more I'm aware of my own frailty, my own need, my own sin, my own issues, the more I'm confident that I can trust Him to quicken and empower me.

Fall and Halloween-time always make me think of skeletons and dry bones. And, this year, I'm more thankful than ever that God is a God who makes all things new, who breathes new life into dry bones.