“As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.” (Genesis 8:22 The Good News Bible)
With the seasonal and climate changes of recent times, I developed an interest in learning how weather affects behavior. Here is an excerpt from a social science publication that will make you ponder on how weather might be influential in determining your behavior.
“Keep a weather-eye open and you’ll find it easier to get on with people, say other psychologists who have been investigating more general effects of weather on human behaviour. They found that the best time to make up after a quarrel is just after a storm. People tend to be more friendly during this period when the temperature is starting to normalize. The physical stresses put on the body by heat, cold, wind and rain apparently have a considerable effect on our humour and efficiency. One of the most trying times for human relationships is said to be during the few hours before a storm, when the reduced atmospheric pressure slows circulation of the blood which is carrying oxygen to the brain. This makes people irritable and depressed.”
As long as we live, we will have to go through changes of season, and the associated weather changes. Sometimes the weather will be delightful and sometimes destructive. At times it will be calming and other times, it will be comfortable. And at other times, it will contribute to our unusual and be the unidentified, yet underlying cause for our uneasiness. Bright days can bring about elation, excitement, and exuberance, while cloudy days can bring about dullness, disappointment, and even depression until the skies are dismissed and the sun takes center stage.
We are now in the fall season, and we will see changes in fashions, dictated by merchandisers who display what is fashionable. Leaves are a thing of beauty, but when they fall from the trees, we face a sense of having an obligated duty to rake them, bag them, and dispose of them. In the fall season, modesty, in most cases, not all cases, becomes mandatory because of the weather change. People cover up more and the layering of clothes covers what should have been kept covered anyway. Should I say, “In some cases because you are not one of those “people?”” Smile!
Seriously, from a chronological perspective, as we inevitably progress from one age bracket to the next, we go through “seasonal changes.” As with the metrological weather, our behaviors will be affected, seriously. You know that’s right! Tell the truth now!
As it relates to metrological weather changes, we make adjustments and as alluded to above. Physiological and psychological changes will occur. However, as it relates to spiritual changes, we must remain the same. We must continue to trust in the Lord! Remain the same! We must keep in mind that He will not forsake us. Remain the same! We must take on the mindset of King David and understand that the righteous can depend on God. Remain the same and! See what David says in the closing verse.
Now my friend, whatever “weather” you are facing right now, whether you have to go through a long storm, traveling on the restless sea of life, or everything is beautiful in life, and you are basking in the sunshine where your days are filled with desired delight, remain the same. Don’t adjust your good Christ-like behavior. Don’t panic when the darkest of days show up momentarily! Dark days will not last forever. They will pass. While you are in a waiting mode, just turn to the Light, Jesus, the light of the world and remain steadfast in your faith.
Whatever changing weather conditions you face, literally, figuratively, or spiritually, know that your devotion to Christ should be constant. Whether it is or not will show up in your behavior. Let the best version of you come forward! Have a great Tuesday.
I hope I have contributed to your God-consciousness, as well as your determination to reach that coveted point in life where you can say, “Through it all, I learned to trust in Jesus. I learned to trust in God! I learned to depend up on His word.” Dress appropriately today for your “weather.” Weather the change of seasons! Be blessed!
“I have been young and now I am old. And in all my years I have never seen the Lord forsake a man who loves him; nor have I seen the children of the godly go hungry.” (Psalm 37:25 The Living Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King