I’ve been reflecting on where I am spiritually right now. Usually, I do this each year on the backside of Christmas. But we ended up driving 36 hours with a carload of teenagers from Gateway on The Uprising snowboarding trip (can you say, “bruised tailbone”?). I learned to snowboard (which I discovered is nothing like wakeboarding, surfing, or skating) and tried my best to keep up with my son (who after three days was rippin’ it up—he’s in the orange suit!). So I’m just now reflecting on the year, which in the past might have caused guilt that I didn’t stick with my yearly discipline. This made me think back to seasons of faith that we typically all go through if we stick with it long enough. The next four posts, I’m gonna reflect on each season. People have called them different names; I call them the Honeymoon Phase, the Growth Phase, the Desert Phase, and the Love Phase. One thing to note, the seasons are not linear. I see them more as a spiraling up as we pass through different seasons again and again, but in “higher” more mature ways as we grow.

The Honeymoon Phase is that time when we first really get it that God is real and good and wants us! It’s the beginning of seeing the world as a place of hope and possibility now that Someone Bigger is in the picture. Everything’s new—prayer is new and fresh, reading the Scriptures is new–we’ve stopped being the accuser and cynic and instead seek to really learn—this opens us to see God and life in new ways. It’s like a honeymoon as you start a new life with God. I remember for me, though I didn’t have lots of warm-fuzzy feelings or any wild “experiences” this time was very hopeful and full of promise. Ironically, I remember my first ski trip was on a retreat right after I came to faith. Being in the mountains reminds me of this time of first love—for the first time, seeing the God behind everything good and beautiful and fun. Do you remember this time—do you remember your “First Love?” In Revelation, Jesus tells us to remember and return to this season of our “First Love” (Rev. 2:4-5). Those feelings come and go, like in any relationship, but we can rekindle the light of that first love for God by remembering and doing some of things we did before in this season.

My son Justin after his 3rd day.

Praying I don't land on my bottom!

... unanswered prayer.