Are you still waiting for your spring?

Is it spring yet?

How was this winter for you? I was absolutely sick and tired of the ice and snow.

When spring comes it will be much warmer.

“The crud” was making its rounds and I think half of Moses Lake had come down with it. A few people I know had this develop into bronchitis, and some others ended up in the hospital with full-blown pneumonia.

Rest assured, in the spring, these bugs will just be a bad memory.

It so happens that I am writing this on March 20. Finally, spring has officially arrived.

However, the temperature this early morning is only 32 degrees. That’s colder than I would have liked. There is also a lot of cloud cover. It really doesn’t look all that warm and inviting outside. I will need to wear a coat.

I have discovered that there are still a number of folk who are hacking and coughing around me.

Yes, the calendar tells me that today is officially the first day of spring. However, I have learned that just because something is written, does not necessarily make my hopes for a reality.

As a teen, I loved the song “They Wwill Know we are Christians by our Love.” However, I soon discovered that just because this was written and sung sweetly, it did not always mean that it represented the reality around me.

This song describes a deep, heartfelt, authentic love. In order for this sort of thing to be achieved, it needs to actually be lived out by means of sincere, concrete actions.

How might this actually happen? Perhaps through unexpected means — life situations that challenge your faith, your whole world and system of belief, make you squirm, leave you feeling vulnerable, flawed, imperfect and challenge your comfort zone.

Initially, these situations could be experienced as cold and gray days. However, many of life’s perceived curses can become great blessings.

There is nothing more powerful than witness that leads to possible connections of shared life experiences. Great love can take this form and be quite powerful.

Does this describe you? If so, this could be your long awaited spring that arrives after a long hard winter.

However, in retrospect, these are mere written words. All of this will be delayed – only representing reality on the day you actually act to make it happen.

Walter is pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church and has served as parish pastor for more than 25 years.