I am one of those people who suffer from a malady called Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD for short. Mayo Clinic defines it as a type of depression that's related to changes in seasons — SAD begins and ends at about the same times every year. Symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. Strange as it is, I have lived in three of the four snow belts (NW Indiana, NE Ohio, and Western Michigan) which make for long winters. When I was in Florida, I almost felt like I had unlimited energy. When we got home, I felt like someone has sucked the strength completely out of me. I cope through the winters with a lot of Vitamin D.
I have a love-hate relationship with the seasons. Part of me just loves the four seasons. I really think the bad weather in Cleveland from December through April just makes me appreciate the really nice weather from May through October. It also really helps to see the beauty of all the seasons. Today, I decided to take my bike out in 40 some degree weather. Now some of my fellow bicycle enthusiasts will go when it is much colder, but I usually cut it off at 50. But I have found that just getting out even when others aren't helps me to be aware of the beauty around me. That appreciation helps my outlook. God has beauty even in the midst of winter doldrums.
We are in a series of messages in church called "All Things New" talking about what the new heaven and the new earth will be like. I read Randy Alcorn's book Heaven and it really challenged me to look at just the glimpse of heaven that this earth is like. Take things like athletics. Do I think athletics and competition will be heaven. I do! Think of things that give us the greatest joy and multiple by hundred, yet without sin. Competition is referred to in the Scriptures as something positive. Paul, for example talks about running and boxing in such a way as to be successful.
I have seen this video several times over the past number of weeks. This man is color blind and has never seen colors. His family gets him a pair of glasses that allows him to see colors for the first time. This is the kind of amazement that we should see in all we do on this earth and even more as we think of eternity.
